Before discussing the salient events of the revolution in Haiti and their impact on Louisiana down to the year 1815, I want to sketch a brief history of the island that Columbus named Hispaniola, the first territory exploited by Europeans in the New World. The indigenous name for the island in pre-Columbian times was Ayti, or Haiti, meaning "Land of Mountains." In the eastern part of the island there are mountain peaks rising to 9000 feet, higher than any area in the United States east of the Mississippi River.

From the outset the invaders expected the local Indian population to provide gold dust as well as labor. "When this labor was not given 'voluntarily' it was extracted by force." Indians who fled into the hills or forest to escape enslavement were pursued and killed by dogs imported from Spain. When Columbus landed, approximately 300,000 to a half-million Indians lived on the island of Hispaniola. Soon diseases such as smallpox against which the Indians had no immunity produced devastating epidemics; by 1510, the Indian population had fallen by as much as 80% in some areas, a sobering reduction in a single generation. To replace the dwindling Indian labor force, the Spanish began to import thousands of African slaves, a pace that quickened as more and more plantations were developed in the Americas.

In a peace treaty signed in 1697, Spain ceded the sparsely-populated western portion of Hispaniola to France. It comprised one-third of the island and was called Saint-Domingue; the eastern region under Spanish control was known as Santo Domingo. Economic activity in Saint-Domingue originally centered around indigo production. Heavy investment in sugar plantations, however, ushered in an astonishing series of changes in a relatively brief time span. In an area with no sugar plantation in 1689, "within only seven years of its acquisition by the French crown [1704], there were already 120 in place." Large-scale sugar plantations led to the importation of more and more slaves: "from 1690-1720 the number of slaves rose from just over 3,000 to well over 47,000�[from] 80,000 in 1730, the slave population reached 172,000 in 1754, 206,000 in 1763, rising to 465,429, or roughly half a million in 1789.

At that time (1789) about 30,000 whites compared to nearly 500,000 slaves lived in the colony. About 28,000 free people of color were in Saint-Domingue. Most were freedmen, or descendants of freedmen. Creoles, born in the colony, were far more likely to be manumitted, or freed, than slaves born in Africa. The Creoles had a greater resistance to diseases and thus a more favorable mortality rate than either whites or slaves who arrived from Africa. By 1789 free people of color "owned one-third of the colony's plantations, one-quarter (over 100,000) of the slaves, and one-quarter of the real estate property." Many had been educated in Europe and filled numerous places in commerce and the military. Some 750 free colored troops from Saint-Domingue fought against the British during the American Revolution in the expedition to Savannah in 1779, including some future heroes of the Haitian Revolution. Yet despite their wealth, free people of color were subjected to systematic discrimination, for whites in the colony were determined to maintain the barriers between the two groups. Saint-Domingue, like ante-bellum Louisiana, was a three-caste society-whites, who owned slaves; free people of color, who owned slaves; and the slaves, 60% of whom had been born in Africa.

Slaves lived chiefly on the 8,000 plantations which made Saint-Domingue by far the most prosperous of European colonies at the time. Indeed, some statistics appear almost surreal. On the eve of the French Revolution, Saint-Domingue alone accounted for roughly one-half of France's foreign trade. It produced more coffee than any other place in the world, "exported more sugar than all the British colonies taken together, and vast quantities of cotton, tobacco, indigo, and cocoa of the best quality�." The leading port, Cap Fran�ais or Le Cap [now Cap Ha�tien] had more ship traffic in and out of its harbor than the leading French port, Marseilles. Called "The Paris of the Indies," Le Cap's population, estimated at 50,000 in 1791 (three-quarters of them slaves), was larger than that of Philadelphia, the most populous city in the United States. And certainly Le Cap had a thriving cultural life, at least for its free population: "the city supported a royal society of the arts and sciences, a museum, botanical gardens, a number of newspapers, and a playhouse which seated over 1500." In 1791 more than 150 theatrical and opera performances were staged in Saint-Domingue. All this in a society pulsating with tensions and insecurity, with barbarities and atrocities committed by all sides.

Opinion on slavery in the 18th century was beginning to change but for thousands of years slavery had been practiced and accepted by virtually everyone. That included the popes among other religious leaders. Only in the middle of the 18th century, in England, did a concerted effort to abolish slavery and the slave trade finally emerge. Abolitionists, chiefly Quakers and evangelical Christians, argued that slavery was a moral blot on the history of the West that had to be eliminated regardless of economic cost. They were, to be sure, a distinct minority but they made speeches, urged members of Parliament to put the slavery issue on the agenda of the House of Commons, and wrote books and pamphlets which included illustrations depicting hundreds of slaves, in shackles, in the stifling heat of cramped quarters in the holds of ships during "the middle passage." The example of these English activists led to a parallel movement in France, La Soci�t� des Amis des Noirs. (The Society of the Friends of the Blacks.) This group also held meetings and published pamphlets and books which included illustrations of the cross-section or plan of slave ships. A scholar who has researched this subject, Daniel Resnick, wryly notes that in these publications--printed in France and written in French for a French audience-the slave ships depicted were English: none were French! Members of the French group later sought to put the colonial issue on the agenda of the revolutionary Assembly. But their primary focus was on improving conditions for free people of color, including civic and voting rights. They did not crusade against the slave trade-that subject, more than delicate, was impolitic in the extreme. The opening of the Estates-General at Versailles in May 1789 led to a descent into the maelstrom for the inhabitants of Saint-Domingue. Representatives of the planter elite in the colony were there to claim seats for themselves and a voice in the deliberations; "petits-blancs," or poor whites, also sent a delegation. Spokesmen for the free men of color were present as well to advance their cause but to no avail. In fact, any thought of serious issues of public concern being decided through debate would soon be dashed. The central message on the day of the Bastille was that change was effected-and would continue to be effected--through intimidation, violence and bloodshed.

At the end of August 1789 the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen was passed by the National Assembly. The first two articles were especially pertinent to the inhabitants of French colonies:
1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions can be based only upon public utility.

2. The aim of every political association is the preservation of the natural and inviolable rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.

Men are born free and equal in rights; these rights include Property. But slaves were considered property. As in the case of the American Declaration of Independence, the French Declaration of Rights contained an inherent contradiction-a contradiction that flowed from the existence of slavery.

In Saint-Domingue, politicians, censors, and the Establishment in general sought by every means to keep out inflammatory pamphlets from France that contained any mention of Liberty or Equality. But information was arriving from every point on the compass and social ferment was inevitable. In December 1789 the National Assembly in Paris rejected the request of free people of color that the Rights of Man be applied to them. Vincent Og� organized a rebellion of free people of color in northern Saint-Domingue in October of 1790 with a force of 300 men. Soon thereafter an expedition set out from Le Cap, defeated the rebels and took Og� prisoner. He was tortured to death on the wheel in a principal square in Le Cap. The authorities were careful not to execute him in a part of the square where whites were executed-separation of the races had to be preserved everywhere.

A play about Og�'s career and his martyrdom triggered outrage in Paris, so much so that "Planters living in Paris were endangered and often attacked on the streets." Ultimately, after a spirited debate, on May 15, 1791 the National Assembly granted full political rights to mulattoes born of free parents. On the following day, all colonial deputies withdrew in protest from the Assembly. The shock waves in Saint-Domingue were not long in coming, though "probably only one free man of color out of fifty could qualify�." The governor of Saint-Domingue claimed that he lacked the power to enforce the May 15 decree. Talk of secession was in the air among whites. Free people of color began to assemble their own army; poor whites seethed with anger. And then far more serious problems emerged.

Amidst the upheavals in revolutionary France, spin-off effects in the colonies included clashes between whites and free coloreds. Information and rumors from France and other Caribbean islands filtered down to the huge slave population in Saint-Domingue. One rumor that spread like wildfire was that the king of France had accorded three free days each week to the slaves in French colonies, but that the colonial masters had refused to implement the decree. A planned insurrection by slaves in the South of the colony in January 1791 was discovered and quashed, but slaves continued to believe in the three days of freedom accorded them, disposing them to later ally themselves with royalist factions.

On the evening of August 14, 1791 a remarkable assembly took place in a forest clearing, the Bois-Ca�man, near Le Cap. Slaves from about 100 plantations were present, in company with numerous maroons-slaves who had escaped from plantations and lived in the woods or mountains, sometimes in bands. Maroons risked horrible punishments, including mutilation, if caught and played a vital role in maintaining links between disparate groups of slaves, spreading information, and acting as liaisons. Slaves in Saint-Domingue came from various parts of West Africa and spoke varied languages but they shared common religious beliefs. Earlier on the evening of August 14, the slaves had agreed to begin an insurrection on August 22, setting fires to fields and houses at plantations and killing the whites. The leader of this well-planned revolt was Boukman Dutty, a maroon who was also a voodoo priest. The second gathering on the evening of the 14th was solemnized by a voodoo ceremony in which the blood of a sacrificial pig was drunk by all present. Legend has it that Boukman gave a rousing speech ending with the following call to arms:
The Good Lord who created the sun which gives us light from above, who rouses the sea and makes the thunder roar-listen well, all of you-this god, hidden in the clouds, watches us. He sees all that the white man does. The god of the white man calls him to commit crimes; our god asks only good works of us. But this god who is so good orders revenge! He will direct our hands; he will aid us. Throw away the image of the god of the whites who thirsts for our tears and listen to the voice of liberty which speaks in the hearts of all of us.

A week later, the attacks began: cane fields were burned to ashes, plantation buildings looted, machinery destroyed, and many owners slain. Within a month over 200 sugar plantations were burned and some 1,200 coffee plantations destroyed. Many slave owners feared that Le Cap would be torched. There ensued a bewildering succession of alliances, skirmishes, and shifts in allegiance on all fronts. For a time, free people of color and free blacks joined whites to fend off the rebels. Boukman was killed in battle in November and his head was displayed in public. Leadership of the insurgent slaves gradually passed to a former slave, now a free black, named Toussaint Br�da, a coachman on the Br�da plantation in the North. Toussaint skillfully organized a network of agents and couriers, displaying a genius for political maneuvering and military strategy. His resourcefulness would be severely tested once the fall-out from radical developments in France hit Saint-Domingue.

France's declaration of war against Austria in the Spring of 1792 sparked a series of unprecedented crises: an attack on the royal palace in Paris in August, a republic declared in the following month, the king tried, found guilty and guillotined. As civil war erupted in France, the radical leadership declared war on other states, including England, Spain and the Netherlands. Full political rights for free people of color in the colonies was proclaimed. This resulted in chaos in Saint-Domingue, further complicated by invasions by both Spanish and English forces. The white colonists looked to England for protection. Most of the rebel slaves under Toussaint were fighting for Spain, which offered them protection. Meanwhile, two republican civil commissioners, Sonthonax and Polverel, had arrived in September 1792 along with 6000 troops to restore order. In the melee, over 10,000 slaves in Le Cap rebelled, atrocities were committed by combattants on all sides, and 2/3rds of Le Cap went up in flames at the end of June 1793. The vaunted Paris of the Indies was a wasteland of charred ruins.

Sonthonax offered freedom for slaves willing to fight against Spain-or anyone else-under the French republican flag. In August 1793 Toussaint "raised the stakes with a proclamation [demanding] immediate unconditional freedom and equality for all." At this point, Toussaint took the name Louverture--the opening, "with its�connotation of a new beginning." On August 29, 1793 Sonthonax announced the abolition of slavery in the North. The other republican commissioner, Polverel, soon thereafter proclaimed abolition in the South and the West. In February 1794 the legislature in Paris issued an emancipation proclamation, ending slavery in French colonies. In May 1794 Toussaint and his troops left Spanish service, began to fight for the French Republic, and successfully drove the Spanish from the territory.

It is hardly surprising that the news of abolition in Saint-Domingue, thanks to the daring and fighting ability of former slaves, spread widely across the Caribbean and beyond and doubtless planted some ideas and some hope in many slave communities. Spanish authorities in Louisiana, notably the governor-general Baron de Carondelet, took every precaution to ward off the arrival in New Orleans of Jacobins or slaves who had lived in Saint-Domingue and might bear the contagion of revolt to this area. "In April, 1795, the worst fears of the Spanish were realized when a slave revolt erupted in Pointe Coup�e Parish," on the west bank of the Mississippi north of Baton Rouge. Evidence suggests that the grapevine of information among slaves spread news about the insurrections in Saint-Domingue. Some 23 of the slave conspirators were executed and their heads placed on posts along the highway; two other heads were put on posts in New Orleans at the Plaza de Armas, now Jackson Square. Twenty-two other slaves were given 5-10 sentences of hard labor. Carondelet also arrested several white Frenchmen and a German tailor. Paranoia was rampant--"one of New Orleans' most prominent citizens, the Baron Joseph X. Pontalba, wrote in 1796: "I can recall when our position in this colony was ever so critical; when we used only to go to bed armed to the teeth. Often then, I would go to sleep with the most sinister thoughts creeping into my mind; taking heed of the dreadful calamities of Saint Domingue." Gwendolyn Midlo Hall has argued that "Historical myths about the Pointe Coup�e Conspiracy of 1795 were deeply implanted into the consciousness of white Louisianans. They became the cornerstone of ideology justifying racist violence and oppression of Afro-Louisianans and of whites who opposed slavery and racism." To return to Saint-Domingue, in May 1797 Sonthonax named Toussaint as commander-in-chief of the French republican army in the colony. When Sonthonax was chosen to be one of the representatives of the colony in Paris, Toussaint became the most powerful figure in Saint-Domingue, especially after securing the withdrawal of all British troops from the territory in 1798. Seeking to rebuild the damaged economy and to restore the export crops to their earlier dominance, he appointed whites to positions of influence in his government. Toussaint had cordial political and economic ties with the United States during the administration of President Adams. Yet he also gave every indication of enjoying his autocratic position to the hilt. By 1801 he had conquered Santo Domingo and declared the abolition of slavery in that territory. Later that year he wrote a new constitution for Saint-Domingue, assuming the governorship for life with the right to appoint his successor. That was not the way that colonial leaders are expected to act; indeed, it bore all the earmarks of readiness for independence from France. Napoleon Bonaparte, the head of the French government, determined to restore white authority in Saint-Domingue. General Leclerc with 17,000 troops arrived in February 1802, with reinforcements to come. Initial skirmishes against Toussaint and other black generals produced a stand-off, and concluded with the willingness of black leaders to cooperate with France upon assurances of keeping their military ranks. Napoleon's real intention became clear when Toussaint was lured into discussions with Leclerc, captured, and sent off to a French prison in the Jura Mountains, near the Swiss border. Even before he entered the prison, the scene in Saint-Domingue had totally changed upon news that the governor in Guadeloupe had announced the restoration of slavery. Black generals like Dessalines and Christophe deserted the French and war to the death ensued. In November1802 Leclerc died of yellow fever. By then, "out of 34,000 French soldiers, 24,000 were dead, 8,000 in hospitals, and only 2,000 wasted men remained."

The initial idea had been for Leclerc to establish order in Saint-Domingue, including the arrest of the black leadership there. Then he could proceed to the French colony of Louisiana where a strong military position might be installed. The drain of men and resources in Saint-Domingue had scuttled those plans. Meanwhile, war between France and England had resumed and Napoleon knew that the English had shark-eyes trained on New Orleans. The dominance of English sea power, the loss of a naval base at Le Cap, the absence of a strong army to defend Louisiana all persuaded him to sell the territory to the United States rather than have it seized by England. President Jefferson was wary of a strong French military presence in the Caribbean or in Louisiana but he also loathed the prospect of an independent black republic. After Haiti won its independence, Jefferson arranged for an embargo against the new state. His contemporary and rival, Alexander Hamilton, fully appreciated the close link between the revolution in Saint-Domingue and the purchase of Louisiana:
To the deadly climate of St. Domingo, and to the courage and obstinate resistance made by its black inhabitants are we indebted for the obstacles which delayed the [continued French] colonization of Louisiana, till the auspicious moment, when a rupture between England and France gave a new turn to the projects of the latter, and destroyed at once all her schemes as to this favorite object of her ambition. Let's add the verdict of Henry Adams, the great-grandson of John Adams, at the end of the 19th century: "The story of Toussaint Louverture has been told almost as often as that of Napoleon, but not in connection with the history of the United States although he exercised on their history an influence as decisive as that of any European ruler."

The last year of French presence in Saint-Domingue was a revolving nightmare, especially owing to Leclerc's successor Rochambeau, who was a sadistic maniac. Atrocities multiplied, the black leaders retaliated. The French were forced to leave Le Cap in defeat. Dessalines and his troops occupied the city on November 30, 1803 and renamed it Cap Ha�tien; earlier that year Toussaint died in a far-off mountain prison in France. At the beginning of 1804, Dessalines became the ruler of the new sovereign state of Haiti. The ongoing war in Europe eventually led to the French invasion of Spain in 1808, multiple atrocities, guerrilla warfare by Spanish partisans, and heavy French losses. In an attempt to describe the horrors of the Spanish theater of war, contemporaries referred to it as "Haiti in Europe."

Once French troops poured into Spain, leaders in Spanish colonies expelled anyone connected to France. This directly affected the thousands of French colonists and free men of color from Haiti who had settled in Cuba with their slaves. Forced to depart Cuba, most of them migrated to New Orleans, practically doubling the city's population. The mayor of New Orleans in 1810 supplied the following statistics on the newly arrived: Whites: 2,731; Free People of Color: 3,102; Slaves: 3,226. An early historian of Louisiana, Barb�-Marbois, wrote in 1830 that "Louisiana has been enriched by the disasters of St. Domingo, and the industry that formerly gave so much value to that island, now fertilizes the Valley of the Mississippi." The immigrants filled professions such as "baker, silversmith, cabinetmaker, hairdresser, fencing master, musician, barber, or actor�Physicians, lawyers, engineers, builders, surveyors, and publisher-printers�" The refugees or their children included the composer and pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk, the chess wizard Paul Morphy, and the jurist Moreau-Lislet. The refugees from Saint-Domingue by way of Cuba played a most important role on the American side in the Battle of New Orleans. What they all had in common was a detestation of the English. Expertise regarding sugar cultivation by some of these former French colonists-and the experience of their slaves in the cane fields-was put to use in developing sugar production in Louisiana. Like Cuba and Brazil, Louisiana would profit from the virtual disappearance of sugar exports from Haiti.

Of course, the export of revolutionary contagion from Haiti never left people's minds. In January, 1811 an uprising of slaves began along the River Road near the present-day site of Norco. The leader was Charles Deslondes, a slave born in Saint-Domingue. The slaves possessed several pistols but most were armed with hoes, cane knives and sticks. They marched south on the River Road, burning and pillaging plantations, all the while shouting: "On to New Orleans!" A battle against 80 militia caused the slaves to withdraw to swamp land but there they were cut down by local militia and a detachment of U.S. troops in the district. 66 slaves were killed in the battle or executed on the spot. Others were captured and held for trial. The trial was held at the Destrehan Plantation House. Twenty-one of the accused were sentenced to death and shot; the corpses were decapitated and [in accordance with the Court order] "the heads were placed on poles along the German Coast as a terrible example to all who would disturb the public tranquility in the future." It proved to be the largest slave insurrection in U.S. history and received broad press coverage across the country.

White refugees from Saint-Domingue were typically among the hard core of pro-slavery advocates in Louisiana. The Deslondes revolt served to confirm many of their fears and predictions. In the years preceding the Civil War (the late-1850s) many free blacks in Louisiana believed that a move would be made to enslave all people of color in the state. Over 10,000 free blacks, many from New Orleans, migrated to Mexico and settled there. Thousands more went to Haiti.

All the while Haiti had remained a kind of pariah state in the eyes of much of the international community. The Papacy did not recognize Haitian sovereignty until 1860, which ruled out the possibility of any Catholic teaching orders going to Haiti earlier than 1860 in any capacity. The United States refused recognition, notably because of objections by southern congressmen in Washington who were aghast at the thought of honors being given to black ambassadors or black consuls. Haiti was finally recognized in 1862 by Abraham Lincoln's government.

In closing, I'd like to read a passage from the journal of Louis Moreau Gottschalk, the piano virtuoso and composer born in New Orleans whose grandparents had lived in Saint-Domingue and whose father had invested in the slave trade in New Orleans. Though he had never been in Haiti, on a return trip from Cuba in June, 1857 his ship passed the coast of Haiti as night began to fall and--quoting All the passengers went below. I remained alone. Leaning against the rigging, I contemplated the desolate country that opened out before me: high mountains whose angular peaks seemed as if they wished to pierce the clouds; solitary palm trees hanging sadly over the desert shore; a horizon whose lines were lost on a stormy sky. Everything, and more especially the name of Saint Domingue, seemed to speak to my imagination by recalling to me the bloody episodes of the insurrection�.Can anyone be astonished that�I could not help feeling an indescribable sentiment of melancholy while for the first time beholding this fatal land, with which so many grievous recollections are associated? Our dwellings burned, our properties devastated, our fortunes annihilated-such were the first effects of that war between two races that had in common only that implacable hatred which each nourished for the other.

Can anyone, however, be astonished at the retaliation exercised by the Negroes on their old masters? What cause, moreover, more legitimate than that of this people, rising in their agony in one grand effort to reconquer their unacknowledged rights and their rank in humanity? In contemplating the events of that memorable epoch, at the distance of time that today separates us from them, we see the work of regeneration purged from the stains imprinted on it by human passions. It disengages itself from the shadows that obscured it; the blood has disappeared, the stains are wiped out; and, from the bosom of this world which crumbles away, rises, somber and imposing, the grand form of Toussaint l'Ouverture, the enthusiastic liberator of a race that nineteen centuries of Christianity had not yet been able to free from the yoke of its miseries. Gottschalk favored the Union cause.

Every year the United Nations sponsors The International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. The date chosen for this annual day of remembrance is August 23rd, the anniversary of the rising of slaves in Saint-Domingue in 1791. What, after all, could be more appropriate? In all of world history, Haiti was the first and still remains the only instance of a slave revolt leading to freedom and then to the creation of an independent sovereign state. Next year, 2003, will mark the bicentennial of the Louisiana Purchase, of Toussaint's death, and of the winning of Haitian independence. The links between the three are indissoluble.

Cited by Michael Zuckerman, "The Power of Blackness: Federalists, Jeffersonians, and the Revolution in San Domingo" in Michel Hector (ed.), La R�volution Fran�aise et Haiti: Filiations, Ruptures, Nouvelles Dimensions, Vol. 2 (Port-au-Prince: �ditions Henri Deschamps), p. 115.
Charles Gibson, Spain in America (New York: Harper & Row, 1966), p. 51.
Carolyn E. Fick, "The French Revolution in Saint Domingue: A Triumph or a Failure?" in David Barry Gaspar and David Patrick Geggus (eds.), A Turbulent Time: The French Revolution and the Greater Caribbean (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1997), pp. 54-55.
Ibid., p. 56.
See the solid work by Stewart R. King, Blue Coat or Powdered Wig: Free People of Color in Pre-Revolutionary Saint Domingue (Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Press, 2001). See the well-documented article by Laura Foner, "The Free People of Color in Louisiana and Saint-Domingue," Journal of Social History 2 (Summer 1970), 406-430.
Zuckerman, "The Power of Blackness," p. 111.
C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution (New York: Vintage Books, 1989), p. 50.
Zuckerman, "The Power of Blackness," p. 112.
Daniel P. Resnick, "The Soci�t� des Amis des Noirs and the Abolition of Slavery," French Historical Studies 7, no. 4 (Fall 1972), 566, note 25.
See Philip D. Curtin, "The Declaration of the Rights of Man in Saint-Domingue, 1788-1791," The Hispanic-American Historical Review 30 (1950), 157-175.
For pertinent documents relating to the Og� case and related matters, see Lynn Hunt, The French Revolution and Human Rights: A Brief Documentary History (Boston and New York: Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press, 1996), pp. 100-115.
Noted by Madison Smartt Bell in the Chronology of Historical Events listed at the end of the second in a series of historical novels devoted to the Revolution in Haiti: Master of the Crossroads (New York: Penguin Books, 2001), p. 672. The first volume of the projected trilogy is All Souls Rising, a magnificent historical novel.
Valerie Quinney, "The Problem of Civil Rights for Free Men of Color in the Early French Revolution," French Historical Studies 7, no. 4 (Fall 1972), 556.
Cited by Carolyn E. Fick, The Making of Haiti: The Saint Domingue Revolution from Below (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1990), p. 93.
Ibid., p. 105.
Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (Boston: Beacon Press, 1995), p. 93.
David P. Geggus, "The Haitian Revolution," in Franklin W. Knight and Colin A. Palmer (eds.), The Modern Caribbean (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989), p. 34. Alfred N. Hunt, Haiti's Influence on Antebellum America: Slumbering Volcano in the Caribbean (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1988), p. 26.
Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, Africans in Colonial Louisiana: the development of Afro-Creole culture in the eighteenth century (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1992), pp. 348-350. Hall's superb study contains an excellent account of the revolt in Pointe Coup�e Parish. Cited in Hunt, Haiti's Influence on Antebellum America, p. 27.
Hall, Africans in Colonial Louisiana, p. 344.
Joan Dayan, Haiti, History, and the Gods (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), p. 152. Cited by Robert L. Paquette, "Revolutionary Saint Domingue in the Making of Territorial Louisiana" in Gaspar and Geggus, A Turbulent Time, p. 211.
Cited by Hunt, Haiti's Influence on Antebellum America, p. 84.
Cited by Paul Lachance, "Les r�fugi�s de Saint-Domingue � la Nouvelle-Orl�ans: leur impact � court et � long-terme" in Hector (ed.), La R�volution fran�aise et Ha�ti, II, 97.
Cited by Thomas Fiehrer, "Saint-Domingue/Haiti: Louisiana/s Caribbean Connection," Louisiana History 30, no. 4 (1989), 432.
Ibid., pp. 432-433.
See Thomas M. Thompson, National newspaper and legislative reactions to Louisiana's Deslondes slave revolt of 1811: a thesis, an unpublished M.A. thesis in History at the University of New Orleans in 1990. In addition, a fine overview of the Deslondes revolt is included on the website linked to the PBS series on African-American History, "Eyes on the Prize." Unfortunately, no author is listed. [For access: http://www.tulane.edu/~so-inst/eyes.html] Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Notes of a Pianist, ed. Jeanne Behrend (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1964), pp. 10, 12-13.
For information pertinent to this day of remembrance, consult the following website address: