Your very humble and obedient servant, Toussaint Louverture, He continued to live there for the rest of his life, with his wife, Mary, and his devoted sister, Dorothy. Undoubtedly, they felt the justice of my request, and gave orders that what I asked should be furnished me. They were arrested, as I had anticipated; the two blacks were assassinated in violation of all justice and right, contrary to the customs of war; their dispatches were sent to Gen. Kerverseau, who concealed the first letter, and showed to Gen. Paul only the second, in which I had ordered him to enter into negotiations with Gen. Kerverseau. I returned my reply by the captains just mentioned. I suggested to him, however, that for the public good and to reëstablish the laborers in their occupations, as they were at the time of his arrival in the island, it was necessary that Gen. Dessalines should be recalled to his command at Saint Marc, and Gen. Charles Belair to L'Arcahaye, which he promised me should be done. Many of these persons had not fired a shot. Gen. Leclerc's authority was undisputed; did he fear me as a rival? I was not discouraged. In running over the letter of Gen. Paul and the copy of Gen. Kerverseau's to the commander of the place of Santo Domingo, which was enclosed in it, I saw that this general had made the overture to the commander of the place, and not to Gen. Paul, as he should have done, to make preparations for the landing of his force. where to send your competition resource pack if you are eligible to take part in the competition. After a voyage of thirty-two days, during which I endured not only great fatigue, but also every species of hardship, while my wife and children received treatment from which their sex and rank should have preserved them, instead of allowing us to land, they retained us on board sixty-seven days. And love, and man’s unconquerable mind. He replied, that an hour of conversation would be worth more than ten letters, giving me his word of honor that he would act with all the frankness and loyalty that could be expected of a French general. Since I entered the service of the Republic, I have not claimed a penny of my salary; Gen. Laveaux, Government agents, all responsible persons connected with the public treasury, can do me this justice, that no one has been more prudent, more disinterested than I. I have only now and then received the extra pay allowed me; very often I have not asked even this. They are warned when they are to be relieved of their command; a messenger is sent to notify them to resign the command to such and such persons; and in case they refuse to obey, measures are taken to compel them; they can then justly be treated as rebels and sent to France. those who committed the wrong did not consult me. Gen. Leclerc has said in the letter to the minister, which I have seen in the newspaper, that I was waiting for his troops to grow sick, in order to make war and take back the command. There I communicated my intentions to Gen. Maurepas, and ordered him to make the most vigorous resistance to all vessels which should appear before Port-de-Paix, where he commanded; and, in case he should not be strong enough,--having only half of a brigade,--to imitate the example of Gen. Christophe and afterward withdraw to the Mountain, taking with him ammunition of all kinds; there to defend himself to the death. He published the influential Lyrical Ballads, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in 1798, rejecting the contrived, self-consciously poetic language that was fashionable at the time. We met in a gorge. I besought him again to let me know his intentions, assuring him that I would contribute everything in my power to the reëstablishment of order and tranquillity. Therefore I wrote to Gen. Leclerc, reminding him of his promise, and begging him to attend to their execution. I ordered him then to repair promptly to this port, since it was possible that Gen. Christophe having refused the entrance of the Cape to the general commanding the squadron, the latter might have proceeded to Port Républicain in the hope of finding me there; should this prove true, I ordered him, in advance, to request the general to wait for me, and to assure him that I would go first to the Cape in the hope of meeting him there, and in case I should not find him there, I would repair at once to Port Républicain to confer with him. The memoir was first translated and published in English in Toussaint L'Ouverture: A Biography and Autobiography by John R. Beard in 1863. Two important leaders in history are Napoleon Bonaparte and Toussaint L’ Ouverture. I never wrote such a letter, and I defy any one to produce it, to tell me to whom it was addressed, and to bring forward the person. My duty, necessity, the circumstances, the reiterated threats of the general commanding the squadron, forced me to it. At the time of the evacuation of the English, there was not a penny in the public treasury; money had to be borrowed to pay the troops and the officers of the Republic. Why put darkness for light and light for darkness? He was born as a slave child, but his father was once a free man. I told him that I was going to Héricourt; that there, perhaps, I should receive news from the commander of the squadron; that he would doubtless deliver to me the orders of the Government; that I might even meet him there; that I should then ascertain the reasons which had induced him to come in this manner; and, that, in case he was the bearer of orders from the government, I should request him to communicate them to me, and should in consequence make arrangements with him. When he met me, I told him that I had received his letter, and also that of the General-in-chief, requesting me to act with him, and that I had come for that purpose; that I had not brought my wife, as he requested, because she never left home, being much occupied with domestic duties, but if sometime, when he was travelling, he would do her the honor of visiting her, she would receive him with pleasure. Did I need this humiliation added to my misfortune? After viewing the Toussaint L’Ouverture documentary and reading the four articles about the difficulty of making a movie about a historical figure like Toussaint L’Ouverture, write a pitch to Hollywood executives trying to sell them on the idea of making a movie about the Haitian Revolution. I caused the ammunition and provisions which I had with me to be put in Fort L'Ouverture at the Crête-à-Pierrot. In short, this brigand, after being steeped in every crime, concealed himself in a forest; he only came out of it upon the arrival of the French squadron. I shall send to him," I continued, "by Mr. Granville, a worthy man, accompanied by my two children and their tutor, whom I shall charge to say to Gen. Leclerc, that it is absolutely dependent upon himself whether this colony is entirely lost, or preserved to France; that I will enter into all possible arrangements with him; that I am ready to submit to the orders of the French Government; but that Gen. Leclerc shall show me orders of which he is bearer, and shall, above all, cease from every species of hostility. Considering all the misfortunes which the colony had already suffered, the dwellings destroyed, assassinations committed, the violence exercised even upon women, I forgot all the wrongs which had been done me, to think only of the happiness of the island and the interest of the Government. Having sent off these dispatches, I resumed my route toward the South. I also took Saint-Raphaël and Hinche, and rendered an account to Gen. Laveaux. I proceeded to Ennery and acquainted Gen. Leclerc with these things, as I had promised him. Initially, the slave population did not become involved in the conflict. On setting out from Maguâna, I had despatched one of my aides-de-camp to Gen. Dessalines, Commander-in-chief of the departments of the West and South, who was then at St. Marc, to order him to join me at Gonaïves, or at St. Michel, to accompany me on my journey. He added, "that the proclamations spread secretly in the town to seduce the people, and instigate an uprising, were not sanctioned by military usage; that if the commander of the squadron had truly pacific intentions, he would have waited for me; that he would not have employed the means which he used to gain the commander of the Fort of Boque, who is a drunkard; that he would not in consequence have seized this fort; that he would not have put to death half of the garrison of Fort Liberty; that he would not have made a descent upon Acul, and that, in a word, he would not have committed at first all the hostilities of which he was guilty. Why did he land without my order and in defiance of the order of the Commission? Registration takes a minute or two. WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. Gen. Leclerc had no right to arrest me; Government alone could arrest us both, hear us, and judge us. But Couppé had not time to execute my orders; they fired upon us at twenty-five steps from the barrier. If she needs horses, I will send her mine. I saw also the refusal given by Gen. Paul to this invitation, until he should receive orders from me. I ordered him to go forward. As soon as I was taken on board the Créole, we set sail, and, four leagues from the Cape, found the Héros, to which they transferred me. Writing about the Haitian Revolution almost inevitably invites comparisons with C.L.R. I urged my horse at full speed to reach this town, to find there the general commanding the squadron, and to ascertain who had caused the conflagration. The slaves were mistreated for many years, and decided to finally do something about it. Although I may not have much knowledge or much education, I have enough good sense to hinder me from contending against the will of my Government; I never thought of it. L’Ouverture wrote this account of the revolution and his role in it after the Haitian Revolution while he was in prison in 1803. But tell me if Gen. Dessalines will obey my orders, and if I can rely upon him?" We immediately set sail for France. No reasonable man, much less a soldier, can believe such an absurdity. He agreed with me that we had both been wrong. And that I might the better fulfil the promises that I had made Gen. Leclerc, I requested Gen. Dessalines to meet me half-way between his house and mine. I embraced them with the greatest satisfaction and ardor. He replied, that his orders were already given upon that subject. I ordered also the inhabitants of Plaisance and the neighboring places, to return home and begin their labor, too. There’s not a breathing of the common wind All these persons had shed their blood to preserve the colony to France; they were officers of my staff, my secretaries, who had done nothing but by my orders; all, therefore, were arrested without cause. Toussaint Louverture was the leader of the Haitian Revolution. I charged the captains, in case they should be arrested, to conceal the first letter and show only the second. He promised me forgetfulness of the past and the protection of the French Government. Toussaint L'Ouverture was a leader … I sent him this letter by my nephew Chancy, whom he kept with him. I hastened to the town. We only collect the information we need to run the Notice how the poem does not associate Toussaint L’Ouverture with great military victories or political triumphs but presents him as a kind of force of nature who is taken up by the “common wind” the “air, earth, and skies”. Why was it made a crime to have executed the orders of the Government? I said to him that, being ill, my stay must be short, asking him, therefore, to finish our business as soon as possible, that I might return. This note I sent by an aide-de-camp of Gen. Leclerc, begging that it might be allowed to pass; it did not reach its destination, and I received nothing. You can use most of our website without any need to register. Apprised of these facts, I moved upon Plaisance and captured the camp of Bidouret, who held this place. I gave only a receipt to this officer, and sent him back. Poetry By Heart is a national competition in which young people in key stages 2, 3, 4 and 5 choose poems they love, learn them by heart and perform them in a school or college competition. I sent my son Isaac to give him an account of all the vexations I suffered, and to warn him that if he did not put an end to them, I should be obliged to leave the place where I was living, and go to my ranche in the Spanish part. I shared these reflections with some prisoners which I had. I sent the third time my aide-de-camp, Couppé and my secretary Nathand, assuring him that I was ready to give up the command to him, conformably to the intentions of the First Consul. The island was invaded by the enemies of the Republic; I had then but a thousand men, armed with pikes. I communicated to him these letters, whereupon he told me that he had seen from St. Marc six large vessels making sail for the coast of Port Républicain; but he was ignorant of what nation they were. I replied immediately that I had always been submissive to the French Government, as I had invariably borne arms for it; that if from the beginning I had been treated as I should have been, not a single shot would have been fired; that peace would not have been even disturbed in the island, and that the intention of the Government would have been fulfilled.