Liberty. Equality. Fraternity.

[**The following is in regards to French plans to put down Toussaint L’Ouverture’s slave rebellion in Haiti.**] >Because the entire plan for reestablishing France’s presence in the Western Hemisphere depended upon [Leclerc](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/G%C3%A9n%C3%A9ral_CHARLES-EMMANUEL_LECLERC_%281772-1802%29.jpg)’s success in restoring French control over Santo Domingo, [Napoleon](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Jacques-Louis_David_-_The_Emperor_Napoleon_in_His_Study_at_the_Tuileries_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg) assured that Leclerc’s expedition enjoyed massive military authority – a first wave of 25,000 troops, to be followed by a second wave of the same size if necessary. Leclerc’s instructions were also brutally explicit. Upon landing his force, he should proclaim his support for [Toussaint L’Ouverture](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/G%C3%A9n%C3%A9ral_Toussaint_Louverture.jpg) and the black insurrectionaries, who had managed to seize control of the island and declare their own emancipation under the banner of “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.” >Once securely ensconced and once Toussaint was convinced that Leclerc was an ally, Leclerc should unleash a war of annihilation. A thousand bloodhounds from Jamaica would be provided to hunt down every black rebel, who should be hanged, drowned, decapitated, burned alive over coals, or, for ultimate dramatic effect, crammed in the backside with gunpowder and exploded. The infamous Code Noir, institutionalizing all these barbarities, should be restored and the entire black population returned to slavery. __________________________ **Author’s Note:** >Three books provide the detailed and complicated context of the situation in Santo Domingo: C. L. R. James, *The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution* (New York, 1963); Thomas O. Ott, *The Haitian Revolution, 1789-1804* (Knoxville, Tenn., 1973); Carolyn E. Fick, *The Making of Haiti: The Saint Domingue Revolution from Below* (Knoxville, Tenn., 1990). More recently, see Lester Langley, *The Americas in the Age of Revolution, 1750-1850* (New Haven, 1996), 130-33. __________________________ **Source:** Ellis, Joseph J. “The Purchase.” *American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic*. Vintage Books, 2008. 219. Print. **Original Source Listed:** Napoleon’s instructions to Leclerc are quoted in Kukla, * A Wilderness So Immense*, 221-22. _________________________ **Further Reading:** [Charles Victoire Emmanuel Leclerc](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Leclerc) [Napoleone di Buonaparte / Napoléon Bonaparte](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon) [François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture, also known as Toussaint L'Ouverture or Toussaint Bréda](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toussaint_Louverture) [Révolution haïtienne (Haitian Revolution)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian_Revolution)