Fearless Leader
Donor
July 11th 1825
Tears flowed from Jean Paul Boyer’s eyes as he heard the thunder of cannon in the distance accompanied by the horrific crash of their projectiles as they wrought havoc on the city around him. Sitting in his cell in Port au Prince, the former President of Haiti sat helpless in the face of the oncoming French invasion.
If only...
Upon becoming President of Haiti his primary goal had been to establish the nation as a viable state. He’d even been able to unite the entire Island save for a few rebel holdouts and was working towards consolidating his power. All that remained was to see to it that the rest of the world recognized the Black Republic’s independence. Shortly after uniting the island he’d begun negotiations with the French Empire.
Unfortunately, things didn’t work out as planned. The restored Bourbon Monarchy under Charles X was faced with a good deal of internal unrest and longed for “a short victorious war” that would distract from domestic problems. Boyer had tried valiantly to dissuade them from this course of action but...
...the price was too high (1)
150 million francs...
There was no way Haiti could ever repay such an amount no matter what. In fact, in order to meet the French demands the nascent republic would have to borrow an additional 30 million from their creditors further increasing their interest.
Even still, economic servitude was preferable to this...
A second occupation...
Boyer had been tempted to take such an offer and might have done so were it not for the actions of his opponents. Upon learning of the French offer and his inclination to accept they deposed him in a bloodless coup d’etat, preferring to threaten the French with a second Haitian Revolution rather than be subjected to French domination albeit in economic form.
It had all gone downhill from there.
Freedom it seemed had a steep price.
(From “The Second Revolution: A History of Hispaniola after 1825” Jean Wycliffe)
...Despite having won independence decades earlier, the second French Invasion of 1825 is what many historians, in agreement with many locals marks the true beginnings of what one could call modern Hispaniola...
...Indeed history could have turned out quite differently had then President of the Haitian Republic, Jean Paul Boyer, been allowed to accept the French Ultimatum...
...Despite the new government’s abject refusal to agree to purchase Haiti from France, the French government was far from taken aback. For their initial goals had been not to secure compensation from Haiti but to wage a “short victorious war” intended to distract the general populace from the domestic problems associated with the reign of the controversial, extreme conservative, Bourbon monarch Charles X...
...The first wave of the French invasion faced little resistance. Haiti had no navy to speak of and an army that was laughable at best. Despite outnumbering their French opponents, the invading forces had little difficulty securing the cities and major areas...
...One major concern for the French Empire was the possibility of American intervention in the Haitian conflict due to the recently signed “Monroe Doctrine”. However the hopes of the Haitian Republic were quashed when against the wishes of then President John Quincy Adams, the US Congress failed to pass a resolution allowing for American intervention. Haiti and by extension Hispaniola were considered to be existing French colonies therefore allowing for French intervention despite the Monroe Doctrine...
...The actions of the American Congress enraged abolitionists across the nation and would serve to further push America towards an inevitable internal confrontation over the issue of slavery. It would also serve to further alienate supporters of John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson, future candidates in the upcoming election of 1828...
...With America unwilling to intervene, the Haitians were left with little hope. Despite pockets of resistance, most of the Haitian army dissolved shortly after the initial French invasion, disappearing into the countryside. These armed men would form the backbone of the Haitian resistance which would eventually culminate in the second Haitian Revolution...
...By the end of 1825 the French empire had succeeded in securing all the major cities across the island including those on the eastern side of the island. Shortly after securing the city of Santiago in Eastern Hispaniola, the entire Island was declared to once again be a colonial department of France by Charles X...
...Despite some hostility from the Kingdom of Spain (who coveted the eastern part of the island, that which was traditionally theirs) there was little foreign resistance to the French invasion and occupation of the island. Indeed the ruling elites across Europe were in fact quite relieved to see the rebel Slave republic quashed and brought back under European occupation...
...Having achieved his courte guerre victoire Charles X soon found himself forced to swallow a bitter pill. Despite claims from his ministers and his generals that Haitian resistance would fade to insignificance, it did far from that as it continued to escalate every year of the French occupation. Furthermore garrison troops on the island began to succumb in ever increasing numbers to disease (a factor that killed more Frenchmen than actual bullets). Increasing losses and little progress saw the initial outpouring of support for the French invasion dissipate all too quickly. The growing unpopularity of the war coupled with the growing unpopularity of Charles X’s increasingly unpopular conservative regime continued to grow throughout the late 1820’s escalating into what would eventually become the 2nd French Revolution...
(From “Saint Domingue: The French Occupation of Hispaniola 1825-1833”)
...Following the success of the short “Haitian War” of 1825, the entire island of Hispaniola, now under French occupation, was organized as the colonial department of Saint Domingue...
...Immediately upon concluding active operations against the remnants of the Haitian Army, French forces began to consolidate their gains in an attempt to pacify the island. They were determined not to make the same mistakes as their predecessors had done decades earlier and were quite intent on seeing Charles X’s command to “see Hispaniola returned to the Empire” out to fruition...
...Key to the early success of the occupying French forces was the re-establishment of the engrained “caste” system that had long held sway in the infantile republic. Despite declarations from the Haitian government declaring all citizens “black”, those with some degree of “white blood” still retained power and influence. By allying themselves with these mulattoes and “yellow blacks” the French occupiers managed to achieve a degree of control over the cities and coastal regions of Hispaniola...
...In addition to allying themselves with the local mulattoes and yellow blacks, the French colonial authorities did their very best to encourage White immigration to the newly re conquered island. White landowners forced to leave, either during the initial Haitian revolution or during the Haitian republic’s occupation of Santo Domingo, were encouraged to return with the offer of complete restoration of their pre-revolution properties...
...The French government also did it’s very best to encourage the rank and file to immigrate to Hispaniola. A diligent propaganda campaign along with government subsidies saw thousands of poor Frenchmen leave their home country to make a better life for themselves in the Empire’s reclaimed territory and escape the draconian authority of the restored Bourbon monarchy...
...However these new immigrants were faced with a harsh reality once they arrived on the island. Faced with unfamiliar diseases in an unfamiliar climate many died. Furthermore due to the fact that the French authorities expelled large numbers of native Haitians to make room for the new European immigrants, these new arrivals were faced with ever increasing armed resistance by the black segments of the islands population...
...With numbers of immigrants dropping off sharply as true accounts of what was going on in Saint Domingue the government was at a loss as to how to pacify the ever more rebellious department. Taking a page out of Great Britain’s book, starting in 1827 the Bourbon monarchy began setting up penal colonies across the island. Over the next 5 years France’s prisons would be unceremoniously emptied as their contents were shipped across the Atlantic...
...However like the voluntary settlers, these convicts still faced the gruesome spectre of disease and many succumbed to it. Conditions in the penal colonies were hardly humane leading to widespread discontent. Far from helping in pacifying the island, France’s penal colony scheme in fact would go on to make things worse...
...Much of the success of the Second Haitian revolution can be traced northward to the United States of America. Though unwilling to directly aid the republic through use of the Monroe Doctrine, sympathy for Haiti permeated the nascent abolitionism of that era. Organizations such as the American Manumission Society among others soon began providing aid in the form of arms and blockade runners to the island. Many free blacks accompanied the weapons in the blockade runners in the hopes of securing a future for their families...
...However free blacks were not the only ones to cross the Caribbean to join the Haitian Rebels. The tumultuous island also became a destination for runaway slaves eager to escape the doldrums of plantation life. These slaves were aided in no small part by illicit abolitionist groups which funnelled them to the island...
...One of these runaway slaves would go on to play a pivotal role in the history of the island, his name etched in the annals of history. Nat Turner...
...However it would not only be blacks who made the treacherous journey past the French Navy to the island. A number of white abolitionists would also make the journey in an effort to “walk the talk” so to speak. Among them would be the recently widowed (2) John Brown, a native of Ohio and a staunch abolitionist. Arriving in a blockade runner filled to the brim with arms and supplies all of which personally financed, John Brown would go on to play a pivotal role in the Haitian revolution...
...Despite complaints from the French, neither Congress or President Adams were willing to do anything to curtail the flow of arms and rebels to the island. The current arrangement pleasing them much...
(From “Onward Christian Soldiers: A Religious History of the Haitian Revolution”)
...Just as many will say the American Revolution had its roots in the Religious revival of the Great Awakening that preceded it. In the same way the Second Haitian Revolution had its roots in the arrival of Protestantism during the Second French occupation...
...Prior to the arrival of American arms, aid, and soldiers, the Haitian Insurgency was struggling for survival. Divided into a plethora of scrabbling factions, for the first few years the Haitians spent more time fighting each other than they did the French...
...The geo-political situation would have a profound effect on the religious situation as many Haitians began to turn to voodoo in an attempt to defeat the French. This move greatly troubled the remaining Catholics in the rebel Haitian ranks, many of whom were struggling with their faith in light of the same faith being proclaimed by their French oppressors...
...Voodoo however served to do little good for the Haitians as newly empowered shamans fought each other for legitimacy as well as the French. Unfortunately their spiritual attacks on the French had far from the effect the Haitian resistance was looking for...
...The arrival of Free American blacks and such prominent and charismatic characters such as John Brown (Jean Brun) and Nat Turner would change Haiti forever. Protestantism, long a minority on the island, was about to make an appearance in a big way...
...Though initially leaders of separate militias the Freedmen Battalions of John Brown and Nat Turner eventually combined (mostly due to losses from disease) in 1828. Once together the pair’s shared beliefs and hatred of voodoo would lead to massive changes in Haitian society...
...Forming the “Haitian Revolutionary Council” the pair set about becoming the legitimate resistance on the island. To do this they set about unifying the resistance by whatever means necessary...
...In addition to vociferously and violently opposing the voodoo religion, Brown and Turner along with their Freedmen Battalions and converted Haitians began aggressively proselytizing, spreading their Baptist beliefs in addition to striking back at the French occupiers in tangible ways...
...A combination of charisma, skill, and luck would see Brown and Turner’s sermons spread like wildfire across the islands. Soon the French occupiers found themselves facing not isolated guerrilla bands, but a determined, well supplied, even fanatical at times insurgency. Casualties from Haitian rebel raids began to escalate exponentially during this time...
...Further aiding the cause of Brown and Turner was the so called “answering” of their prayers. Many Haitians seemed convinced that God was indeed “smiting” the vile French with yellow fever and malaria far more than he had when they had been following voodoo...
...Yet despite all their success the forces of Brown and Turner and their Haitian Revolutionary Council were unable to wrest the island from French hands. Indeed it would take an occurrence far larger than the Second Haitian Revolution to free the island once again. That occurrence would end up being the Second French Revolution...
Footnotes
(1):The POD being Haiti refuses Charles X exorbitant demands in regards to the purchase of Haiti leading to the monarch ordering the invasion of the island.
(2): In TTL John Brown’s wife dies along with his first child leaving him a widower and much more suited to filibustering adventures...
Tears flowed from Jean Paul Boyer’s eyes as he heard the thunder of cannon in the distance accompanied by the horrific crash of their projectiles as they wrought havoc on the city around him. Sitting in his cell in Port au Prince, the former President of Haiti sat helpless in the face of the oncoming French invasion.
If only...
Upon becoming President of Haiti his primary goal had been to establish the nation as a viable state. He’d even been able to unite the entire Island save for a few rebel holdouts and was working towards consolidating his power. All that remained was to see to it that the rest of the world recognized the Black Republic’s independence. Shortly after uniting the island he’d begun negotiations with the French Empire.
Unfortunately, things didn’t work out as planned. The restored Bourbon Monarchy under Charles X was faced with a good deal of internal unrest and longed for “a short victorious war” that would distract from domestic problems. Boyer had tried valiantly to dissuade them from this course of action but...
...the price was too high (1)
150 million francs...
There was no way Haiti could ever repay such an amount no matter what. In fact, in order to meet the French demands the nascent republic would have to borrow an additional 30 million from their creditors further increasing their interest.
Even still, economic servitude was preferable to this...
A second occupation...
Boyer had been tempted to take such an offer and might have done so were it not for the actions of his opponents. Upon learning of the French offer and his inclination to accept they deposed him in a bloodless coup d’etat, preferring to threaten the French with a second Haitian Revolution rather than be subjected to French domination albeit in economic form.
It had all gone downhill from there.
Freedom it seemed had a steep price.
(From “The Second Revolution: A History of Hispaniola after 1825” Jean Wycliffe)
...Despite having won independence decades earlier, the second French Invasion of 1825 is what many historians, in agreement with many locals marks the true beginnings of what one could call modern Hispaniola...
...Indeed history could have turned out quite differently had then President of the Haitian Republic, Jean Paul Boyer, been allowed to accept the French Ultimatum...
...Despite the new government’s abject refusal to agree to purchase Haiti from France, the French government was far from taken aback. For their initial goals had been not to secure compensation from Haiti but to wage a “short victorious war” intended to distract the general populace from the domestic problems associated with the reign of the controversial, extreme conservative, Bourbon monarch Charles X...
...The first wave of the French invasion faced little resistance. Haiti had no navy to speak of and an army that was laughable at best. Despite outnumbering their French opponents, the invading forces had little difficulty securing the cities and major areas...
...One major concern for the French Empire was the possibility of American intervention in the Haitian conflict due to the recently signed “Monroe Doctrine”. However the hopes of the Haitian Republic were quashed when against the wishes of then President John Quincy Adams, the US Congress failed to pass a resolution allowing for American intervention. Haiti and by extension Hispaniola were considered to be existing French colonies therefore allowing for French intervention despite the Monroe Doctrine...
...The actions of the American Congress enraged abolitionists across the nation and would serve to further push America towards an inevitable internal confrontation over the issue of slavery. It would also serve to further alienate supporters of John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson, future candidates in the upcoming election of 1828...
...With America unwilling to intervene, the Haitians were left with little hope. Despite pockets of resistance, most of the Haitian army dissolved shortly after the initial French invasion, disappearing into the countryside. These armed men would form the backbone of the Haitian resistance which would eventually culminate in the second Haitian Revolution...
...By the end of 1825 the French empire had succeeded in securing all the major cities across the island including those on the eastern side of the island. Shortly after securing the city of Santiago in Eastern Hispaniola, the entire Island was declared to once again be a colonial department of France by Charles X...
...Despite some hostility from the Kingdom of Spain (who coveted the eastern part of the island, that which was traditionally theirs) there was little foreign resistance to the French invasion and occupation of the island. Indeed the ruling elites across Europe were in fact quite relieved to see the rebel Slave republic quashed and brought back under European occupation...
...Having achieved his courte guerre victoire Charles X soon found himself forced to swallow a bitter pill. Despite claims from his ministers and his generals that Haitian resistance would fade to insignificance, it did far from that as it continued to escalate every year of the French occupation. Furthermore garrison troops on the island began to succumb in ever increasing numbers to disease (a factor that killed more Frenchmen than actual bullets). Increasing losses and little progress saw the initial outpouring of support for the French invasion dissipate all too quickly. The growing unpopularity of the war coupled with the growing unpopularity of Charles X’s increasingly unpopular conservative regime continued to grow throughout the late 1820’s escalating into what would eventually become the 2nd French Revolution...
(From “Saint Domingue: The French Occupation of Hispaniola 1825-1833”)
...Following the success of the short “Haitian War” of 1825, the entire island of Hispaniola, now under French occupation, was organized as the colonial department of Saint Domingue...
...Immediately upon concluding active operations against the remnants of the Haitian Army, French forces began to consolidate their gains in an attempt to pacify the island. They were determined not to make the same mistakes as their predecessors had done decades earlier and were quite intent on seeing Charles X’s command to “see Hispaniola returned to the Empire” out to fruition...
...Key to the early success of the occupying French forces was the re-establishment of the engrained “caste” system that had long held sway in the infantile republic. Despite declarations from the Haitian government declaring all citizens “black”, those with some degree of “white blood” still retained power and influence. By allying themselves with these mulattoes and “yellow blacks” the French occupiers managed to achieve a degree of control over the cities and coastal regions of Hispaniola...
...In addition to allying themselves with the local mulattoes and yellow blacks, the French colonial authorities did their very best to encourage White immigration to the newly re conquered island. White landowners forced to leave, either during the initial Haitian revolution or during the Haitian republic’s occupation of Santo Domingo, were encouraged to return with the offer of complete restoration of their pre-revolution properties...
...The French government also did it’s very best to encourage the rank and file to immigrate to Hispaniola. A diligent propaganda campaign along with government subsidies saw thousands of poor Frenchmen leave their home country to make a better life for themselves in the Empire’s reclaimed territory and escape the draconian authority of the restored Bourbon monarchy...
...However these new immigrants were faced with a harsh reality once they arrived on the island. Faced with unfamiliar diseases in an unfamiliar climate many died. Furthermore due to the fact that the French authorities expelled large numbers of native Haitians to make room for the new European immigrants, these new arrivals were faced with ever increasing armed resistance by the black segments of the islands population...
...With numbers of immigrants dropping off sharply as true accounts of what was going on in Saint Domingue the government was at a loss as to how to pacify the ever more rebellious department. Taking a page out of Great Britain’s book, starting in 1827 the Bourbon monarchy began setting up penal colonies across the island. Over the next 5 years France’s prisons would be unceremoniously emptied as their contents were shipped across the Atlantic...
...However like the voluntary settlers, these convicts still faced the gruesome spectre of disease and many succumbed to it. Conditions in the penal colonies were hardly humane leading to widespread discontent. Far from helping in pacifying the island, France’s penal colony scheme in fact would go on to make things worse...
...Much of the success of the Second Haitian revolution can be traced northward to the United States of America. Though unwilling to directly aid the republic through use of the Monroe Doctrine, sympathy for Haiti permeated the nascent abolitionism of that era. Organizations such as the American Manumission Society among others soon began providing aid in the form of arms and blockade runners to the island. Many free blacks accompanied the weapons in the blockade runners in the hopes of securing a future for their families...
...However free blacks were not the only ones to cross the Caribbean to join the Haitian Rebels. The tumultuous island also became a destination for runaway slaves eager to escape the doldrums of plantation life. These slaves were aided in no small part by illicit abolitionist groups which funnelled them to the island...
...One of these runaway slaves would go on to play a pivotal role in the history of the island, his name etched in the annals of history. Nat Turner...
...However it would not only be blacks who made the treacherous journey past the French Navy to the island. A number of white abolitionists would also make the journey in an effort to “walk the talk” so to speak. Among them would be the recently widowed (2) John Brown, a native of Ohio and a staunch abolitionist. Arriving in a blockade runner filled to the brim with arms and supplies all of which personally financed, John Brown would go on to play a pivotal role in the Haitian revolution...
...Despite complaints from the French, neither Congress or President Adams were willing to do anything to curtail the flow of arms and rebels to the island. The current arrangement pleasing them much...
(From “Onward Christian Soldiers: A Religious History of the Haitian Revolution”)
...Just as many will say the American Revolution had its roots in the Religious revival of the Great Awakening that preceded it. In the same way the Second Haitian Revolution had its roots in the arrival of Protestantism during the Second French occupation...
...Prior to the arrival of American arms, aid, and soldiers, the Haitian Insurgency was struggling for survival. Divided into a plethora of scrabbling factions, for the first few years the Haitians spent more time fighting each other than they did the French...
...The geo-political situation would have a profound effect on the religious situation as many Haitians began to turn to voodoo in an attempt to defeat the French. This move greatly troubled the remaining Catholics in the rebel Haitian ranks, many of whom were struggling with their faith in light of the same faith being proclaimed by their French oppressors...
...Voodoo however served to do little good for the Haitians as newly empowered shamans fought each other for legitimacy as well as the French. Unfortunately their spiritual attacks on the French had far from the effect the Haitian resistance was looking for...
...The arrival of Free American blacks and such prominent and charismatic characters such as John Brown (Jean Brun) and Nat Turner would change Haiti forever. Protestantism, long a minority on the island, was about to make an appearance in a big way...
...Though initially leaders of separate militias the Freedmen Battalions of John Brown and Nat Turner eventually combined (mostly due to losses from disease) in 1828. Once together the pair’s shared beliefs and hatred of voodoo would lead to massive changes in Haitian society...
...Forming the “Haitian Revolutionary Council” the pair set about becoming the legitimate resistance on the island. To do this they set about unifying the resistance by whatever means necessary...
...In addition to vociferously and violently opposing the voodoo religion, Brown and Turner along with their Freedmen Battalions and converted Haitians began aggressively proselytizing, spreading their Baptist beliefs in addition to striking back at the French occupiers in tangible ways...
...A combination of charisma, skill, and luck would see Brown and Turner’s sermons spread like wildfire across the islands. Soon the French occupiers found themselves facing not isolated guerrilla bands, but a determined, well supplied, even fanatical at times insurgency. Casualties from Haitian rebel raids began to escalate exponentially during this time...
...Further aiding the cause of Brown and Turner was the so called “answering” of their prayers. Many Haitians seemed convinced that God was indeed “smiting” the vile French with yellow fever and malaria far more than he had when they had been following voodoo...
...Yet despite all their success the forces of Brown and Turner and their Haitian Revolutionary Council were unable to wrest the island from French hands. Indeed it would take an occurrence far larger than the Second Haitian Revolution to free the island once again. That occurrence would end up being the Second French Revolution...
Footnotes
(1):The POD being Haiti refuses Charles X exorbitant demands in regards to the purchase of Haiti leading to the monarch ordering the invasion of the island.
(2): In TTL John Brown’s wife dies along with his first child leaving him a widower and much more suited to filibustering adventures...
