The Stone that the Builder Refused

by Madison Smartt Bell

  NOVEMBER 4: French Minister of Marine Forfait instructs Toussaint not to take possession of the Spanish portion of the island.

  NOVEMBER 26: Roume, blamed by Toussaint for Agé’s failed expedition to Santo Domingo, is arrested by Moyse and imprisoned at Dondon.

  1801

  JANUARY: Toussaint sends two columns into Spanish Santo Domingo, one from Ouanaminthe under command of Moyse and the other from Mirebalais under his own command.

  JANUARY 28: Toussaint enters Santo Domingo City, accepts the Spanish capitulation from Don García, and proclaims the abolition of slavery.

  FEBRUARY 4: Toussaint organizes an assembly to create a constitution for Saint Domingue.

  JULY 3: Toussaint proclaims the new constitution, whose terms make him governor for life.

  JULY 16: Toussaint dispatches a reluctant Vincent to present his constitution to Napoleon Bonaparte and the Consulate in France.

  OCTOBER 1: The Peace of Amiens ends the war between England and France. Napoleon begins to prepare an expedition, led by his brother-in-law General Leclerc, to restore white power in Saint Domingue.

  OCTOBER 16: An insurrection led by Moyse against Toussaint’s forced labor policy begins on the northern plain and, in the coming weeks, is suppressed with extreme severity by Toussaint and Dessalines.

  NOVEMBER 24: Moyse is executed at Port-de-Paix.

  NOVEMBER 25: Toussaint proclaims a military dictatorship.

  DECEMBER 14: The Leclerc expedition sails from Brest, with the fleet commanded by Villaret-Joyeuse.

  1802

  JANUARY 29: The first ships of Leclerc’s expeditionary fleet make a landfall off Cape Samana on the Spanish side of the island.

  Toussaint observes the fleet from the heights. He commands at this point 20,000 regular troops in three divisions: 5,000 in the north under Christophe at Le Cap (with a smaller division under Maurepas at Port-de-Paix); 11,000 under Dessalines in the south and west; and 4,000 in Spanish Santo Domingo under Clervaux and Paul Louverture. By this time most of the cultivators have also been armed.

  JANUARY 30: Leclerc’s fleet regroups. Two ships with 450 troops commanded by General Kerverseau sail for Santo Domingo City, while the rest of the fleet divides into three: Latouche-Treville takes 3,000 men commanded by General Boudet to Port-au-Prince; Magon takes 1,800 men commanded by Rochambeau to Fort Liberté; Villaret-Joyeuse takes 4,000 men commanded by Leclerc to Le Cap.

  FEBRUARY 2: Leclerc’s squadron appears outside Le Cap harbor. Civilians in the town beg Christophe to submit. A storm drives the French fleet offshore.

  Rochambeau demolishes the forts of Fort Liberté and executes the defenders.

  FEBRUARY 3: Leclerc sends Lebrun ashore at Le Cap with a written demand for Christophe’s submission.

  When the French squadron appears at Santo Domingo City, the white population rises against the black garrison. In Saint Yago, Clervaux submits to French authority. General Boudet arrives at Port-au-Prince, which refuses to surrender.

  FEBRUARY 4: Rochambeau secures Fort Liberté and advances into the Plaine du Nord.

  At Le Cap, Lebrun returns to Leclerc’s flagship with the news that Christophe has asked for a forty-eight-hour delay so as to receive orders from Toussaint. During the day, the French fleet loads men on lighter boats to seek a landing elsewhere on the coast. Under pressure from Rochambeau’s advance, armed blacks fall back on the town from the northern plain. During the evening, the whites and civilians of the town seek refuge on the heights of Morne la Vigie.

  At nightfall the firing of a cannon at a ship approaching Fort Picolet signals the burning of the town. Overnight, Le Cap is reduced to ashes.

  At Port-au-Prince, General Agé interviews emissaries from Boudet and says he must wait for orders from Dessalines (then at Saint Marc). Covertly, Agé lets Boudet’s men know that he is not really in control and that his subordinate Lamartinière and other officers are determined to burn the city if there is a landing. Boudet’s emissaries, Gimont and Sabès, are held prisoner.

  FEBRUARY 5: Leclerc leads a force ashore at Limbé. On the road to Le Cap he meets opposition commanded (according to a note by General Hardy) by Toussaint Louverture himself.

  Following Toussaint’s orders, Christophe retreats from the ruins of Le Cap. Villaret-Joyeuse lands men and fire pumps in Le Cap and assumes control.

  Boudet lands at a point south of Léogane and advances north toward Port-au-Prince. Fort Bizoton surrenders to Boudet and Fort Piémont is taken by a French assault. Lamartinière, who apparently believed he could defend Port-au-Prince without burning it, is forced to retreat, leaving the town intact, after a massacre of white civilians on the Savane Valembrun.

  Laplume, commander of Toussaint’s forces south of Port-au-Prince, offers to side with the French.

  FEBRUARY 6: Leclerc’s columns advancing from Limbé join with one of Rochambeau’s columns from Fort Liberté to establish control of the Northern Plain.

  FEBRUARY 7: Leclerc takes possession of the ruins of Le Cap, and dispatches Toussaint’s sons Isaac and Placide with messages for Toussaint.

  Toussaint writes orders to Dessalines to sack and burn Port-au-Prince at the first opportunity.

  FEBRUARY 8: At night, Toussaint meets his sons at Ennery. An exchange of letters between Toussaint and Leclerc begins.

  Laplume’s forces swear allegiance to France.

  FEBRUARY 9: Dessalines, having previously joined Lamartinière at Croix des Bouquets, retreats before Boudet’s advance, burning the country behind him and taking hostages in the direction of Mirebalais.

  Toussaint writes to Dommage at Jérémie, instructing him to scorch the earth behind him as he retreats toward the mountains of the interior.

  FEBRUARY 11: Dessalines circles Port-au-Prince to burn Léogane, but is forced to fall back before one of Boudet’s columns. The French achieve secure communication with Laplume.

  FEBRUARY 12: Humbert lands with 1,200 troops at Port-de-Paix, where Maurepas with 2,000 regulars burns the town and retreats. Maurepas regroups in the hills with several thousand irregulars and counterattacks successfully. The French are barely able to hold the town with the help of the shipboard guns.

  Leclerc writes to Toussaint requesting that he come to meet with him, and offers a four-day cease-fire.

  FEBRUARY 14: Reinforcements from the missing portion of Leclerc’s fleet arrive at

  Le Cap.

  FEBRUARY 17: Leclerc outlaws Toussaint and Christophe as rebels—Toussaint having failed to respond to his letter of February 12. Leclerc orders a blockade of the coast to cut off Toussaint’s resupply links to the United States, and swears not to take his boots off until he has captured Toussaint.

  Some 1,500 men sail from Le Cap to reinforce Humbert at Port-de-Paix, while other ships go to Môle Saint Nicolas, which surrenders without a struggle.

  FEBRUARY 19: Leclerc launches a three-pronged attack on Toussaint in the Cordon de l’Ouest: Rochambeau moving from Fort Liberté, Hardy from Le Cap, and Desfourneaux from Limbé. The strategy is to force Toussaint out of the mountains and onto the coastal plain near Gonaives.

  Reinforcements reach Humbert, who attacks Maurepas and is defeated with heavy losses.

  FEBRUARY 20: The French advance in the Cordon de l’Ouest is delayed by heavy rain.

  In Santo Domingo City, Paul Louverture, whose instructions from Toussaint have been intercepted, submits to Kerverseau.

  FEBRUARY 21: Boudet, held down at Port-au-Prince by Dessalines until today, sends a column north to contribute to the convergence on Toussaint in the Cordon de l’Ouest. Plaisance submits to Desfourneaux, and Hardy takes Marmelade from Christophe, who retreats toward Ennery, delaying Hardy’s advance with ambushes. Rochambeau wins a battle at Mare à la Roche to reach Saint Michel. The French noose appears to be tightening on Toussaint at Ennery.

  FEBRUARY 22: Rochambeau presses south as far as Saint Raphael, intending if possible to capture Toussaint’s family at Habitation Lacroix, near Ennery. Toussaint�
�s youngest son, Saint-Jean, is captured by Hardy’s men during the family’s flight from Ennery. That night Rochambeau occupies the heights of Morne Barade at the same time Toussaint arrives at the top of Ravine à Couleuvre, and battle begins.

  FEBRUARY 23: Driven from Ravine à Couleuvre by Rochambeau’s troops, Toussaint breaks Rochambeau’s advance with a cavalry charge on Habitation Périsse and forces the surviving French back to the ravine.

  The troops of Hardy and Desfourneaux, now united under Leclerc, enter Gonaives after resistance by Vernet, who burns the town before retreating. Toussaint, now ill with fever, retreats south to Pont d’Ester, joined by his family.

  FEBRUARY 24: Dessalines massacres the whites of Saint Marc, then burns and evacuates the town.

  FEBRUARY 25: Boudet, delayed by terrain and harried by Dessalines, finally reaches

  Saint Marc to find scorched earth and a few hundred corpses of white prisoners. By an intercepted letter from Toussaint he learns that Dessalines, whose army vanished from view, is attempting again to destroy Port-au-Prince.

  FEBRUARY 26: By night, profiting from the absence of Boudet, Dessalines attacks the lightly garrisoned Port-au-Prince, but is repelled by Pamphile de Lacroix, supported by maroon bands of Lamour Dérance and Lafortune, who have abruptly switched sides to the French. Dérance and Lafortune ambush the 8th Demibrigade (which had attacked Port-au-Prince in concert with Dessalines) and capture the commander, Pierre Louis Diane. Dessalines retreats across the Cul-de-Sac plain, leaving scorched earth behind him.

  Leclerc, leading Desfourneaux’s division and 1,500 of Hardy’s men from Gonaives, advances north to Gros Morne to attack Maurepas. Meanwhile, Lubin Golart, a former commander of Maurepas’s 9th Demibrigade, attacks Maurepas from Jean Rabel. Surrounded and misinformed that Toussaint was completely defeated at Ravine à Couleuvre, Maurepas surrenders to the French.

  FEBRUARY 28: Dessalines moves toward Mirebalais, seeking to rejoin Toussaint. He finds Toussaint at Petite Rivière and begins repairing the fort of La Crête à Pierrot on the heights above the town and the Artibonite River.

  MARCH 1 : After Toussaint’s departure, Dessalines massacres the white population of Petite Rivière, along with numerous white prisoners he has herded there during his previous movements.

  MARCH 2 : Learning that he has been outlawed by Leclerc, Toussaint proclaims Leclerc outlaw. He threatens Gonaives with a feint, burns the town of Ennery, and begins to circle from Ennery through Saint Michel, Saint Raphael, Dondon, and Marmelade, raising resistance as he goes.

  Rochambeau, who believes that he is pursuing Toussaint from the banks of Artibonite into the Grand Cahos Mountains, captures a pack train carrying treasuries from the coastal towns.

  Leclerc orders a convergence on Toussaint’s supposed position in the mountains above Petite Rivière.

  MARCH 4 : With 2,000 men, General Debelle attacks Lamartinière’s garrison of 300 outside the fort of La Crête à Pierrot. His men are decimated when the defenders jump into the ditches recently dug around the fort, and Debelle himself is severely wounded.

  D’Henin, detached from Boudet’s division, finds Mirebalais burned by Dessalines.

  MARCH 5 : Toussaint takes Bidouret, an outpost above Plaisance, planning to attack Desfourneaux at Plaisance and then proceed to Port-de-Paix to join Maurepas.

  MARCH 6 : Toussaint loses an engagement to Desfourneaux in the Plaisance area, confronts soldiers of the 9th Demibrigade, now led by Lubin Golart, and so learns for certain that Maurepas has surrendered at Port-de-Paix. He turns south toward La Crête à Pierrot with the idea of capturing Leclerc by a movement of double encirclement.

  MARCH 9 : Boudet’s division unites at Verrettes and discovers 800 whites massacred there by Dessalines.

  MARCH 11 : Harassed by Charles Belair, Boudet’s division crosses the Artibonite and reaches La Crête à Pierrot.

  MARCH 12 : Recently returned to La Crête à Pierrot, Dessalines declares he will blow up the fort if it is penetrated by the French. Boudet is lured into the same trap as Debelle on March 4, with heavy losses. In the late morning, Leclerc arrives to support Boudet, but the French attacks are confounded by the entrenchments and by cavalry charges by Toussaint’s honor guard, out of the nearby woods. By the end of the day, Leclerc and Boudet are both wounded. Pamphile de Lacroix (the only uninjured general on the scene) moves the troops to a position northwest of the fort. Leclerc determines to lay siege while waiting for the arrival of Hardy and Rochambeau.

  MARCH 13 : Dessalines arranges for fortification of a second redoubt above La Crête à Pierrot, and leads a sortie to get gunpowder from the Plassac depot, which Boudet has already blown up on his march from Verrettes. At the approach of Hardy, the honor guard cavalry evacuates the area, trying to rejoin Toussaint or Dessalines.

  Rochambeau occupies the destroyed town of Mirebalais, repelling Dessalines from the Cahos onto the Central Plateau and cutting him off from the besieged fort.

  MARCH 22: Rochambeau arrives on the right bank of the Artibonite, completing the encirclement of La Crête à Pierrot. Rochambeau demolishes the redoubt recently established outside the main fort. Lamartinière, commanding in Dessalines’s absence, raises red flags of no surrender, no quarter at La Crête à Pierrot. The French begin three days of bombardment of the main fort, with the artillery corps commanded by Pétion.

  In the north, meanwhile, Christophe raises rebellion against the French around the Northern Plain.

  MARCH 24: An order to evacuate is smuggled into the fort of La Crête à Pierrot, from Dessalines to Lamartinière, who manages against all odds to cut his way through the French lines by night and escape with about half of the 900 men Dessalines left there. The March battles around the fort have cost the French 2,000 casualties. Toussaint joins Dessalines at Morne Calvaire and learns that the fort has surrendered. He is too late to execute the plan to capture Leclerc.

  MARCH 25 : Rochambeau’s soldiers enter the fort at La Crête à Pierrot and murder all the wounded who remain there. In Europe a treaty is signed to ratify the Peace of Amiens.

  MARCH 28 : Toussaint meets the French emissaries Sabès and Gimont at Chassérieux, his Grand Cahos headquarters, and sends them to Boudet with a letter to Napoleon. Hardy raids Toussaint’s property at La Coupe a l’Inde, and captures Toussaint’s warhorse, Bel Argent.

  MARCH 29 : Toussaint, pursuing Hardy, fights an engagement with him at Dondon. Christophe attacks from one side, Toussaint from the other. Though Christophe is nearly taken prisoner, Hardy is chased down the road to Le Cap. APRIL: Yellow fever breaks out in Le Cap. Toussaint learns of the signing of the treaty confirming the Peace of Amiens.

  APRIL 1 : Leclerc writes to Napoleon that he has 7,000 active men and 5,000 in the hospital—omitting to say that another 5,000 are dead. He also has 7,000 “colonial troops” of variable reliability, including many black soldiers brought over by turncoat leaders.

  APRIL 2 : Following the battle at Dondon, Christophe pursues Hardy to the gates of Le Cap. At this point, Toussaint’s forces have retaken Saint Michel, Marmelade, Saint Raphael, and Limbé, and have isolated Mirebalais. Leclerc returns to Le Cap to support Hardy.

  APRIL 3 : The Havre Flushing Squadron arrives with 2,500 fresh troops for Leclerc.

  APRIL 26 : On a promise of retaining his rank in French service, Christophe arranges his submission to Leclerc in a meeting at Haut du Cap, and turns over 1,200 troops to the French. But Toussaint still holds the northern mountains with 4,000 regular troops and a larger number of irregulars. Leclerc writes to the Minister of Marine that he needs a total of 25,000 European troops to secure the island—i.e., reinforcements of 14,000.

  MAY 1: Toussaint and Dessalines offer to submit to Leclerc’s authority on similar terms as Christophe.

  MAY 6 : Toussaint makes a formal submission to Leclerc at Le Cap. Leclerc’s position is still too weak for him to obey Napoleon’s secret order to deport the black leaders immediately. While Toussaint retires to Gonaives, with the 2,000 me
n of his honor guard converting themselves to cultivators there, Dessalines remains on active duty. Leclerc frets that their submission may be feigned.

  In May, the generals Hardy and Debelle die of exhaustion and their wounds. At Port-au-Prince and Le Cap, surviving French troops suffer heavy losses to the yellow fever epidemic.

  JUNE: By the first week of this month, Leclerc has lost 3,000 men to fever. Both Le Cap and Port-au-Prince have become plague zones, with corpses laid out in the barracks yards to be carried to lime pits outside the town. Deaths are proportionately higher among the officers and civilians of high rank. Sailors in the fleet are also dying by the thousands.

  JUNE 6 : Leclerc notifies Napoleon that he has ordered Toussaint’s arrest.

  JUNE 7 : Lured away from Gonaives to a meeting with General Brunet, Toussaint is made prisoner.

  JUNE 15 : Toussaint, with his family, is deported for France aboard the ship Le Héros.

  JUNE 11 : Leclerc writes to the Minister of Marine that he suspects his army will die out from under him—citing his own illness (he had overcome a bout of malaria soon after his arrival), he asks for recall. This letter also contains the recommendation that Toussaint be imprisoned in the heart of inland France. In the third week of June, Leclerc begins the tricky project of disarming the cultivators—under authority of the black generals who have submitted to him.

  JUNE 22 : Toussaint writes a letter of protest to Napoleon from his ship, which is now docked in Brest.

  JULY 6 : Leclerc writes to the Minister of Marine that he is losing 160 men per day. However, this same report states that he is effectively destroying the influence of the black generals.

  News of the restoration of slavery in Guadeloupe arrives in Saint Domingue in the last days of the month. The north rises instantly, the west shortly afterward, and black soldiers begin to desert their generals.

  AUGUST 6 : Leclerc reports the continued prevalence of yellow fever, the failure to complete the disarmament, and the growth of rebellion. The major black generals have stayed in his camp, but the petty officers are deserting in droves and taking their troops with them.