The Appeal., 1898-04-09
FIRST OF BLACKS.
TOUSSIANT L'OVERTURE'S SER
VICE FORWEST INDIA LIBERTY
Story of q Ltberator, From Slave He Rises
to Become Chief Of lis Race. His Tri-,
umph as q Soldier, 3 Llberator and q
Statesman. .-af..


Stern-browed Americans who these days
anxiously await news from the national cap
ital were wont in their boyhood to declaim
from their school platforms these lines from
Wendell Phillips: Fifty years hence. when
truth gets a hearing, the muse Of history will
put Phocion for the Greek, and Brutus for
the Romans, Hampden for England, Fayette
for France, choose Washington as the bright
consummated flower of our earlier civiliza-
tion. and John Brown the ripe fruit of our
MONDAY, then, dipping her pen in the sunlight.
will write In the clear blue above them
all the name Of the soldier, the statesman,
the martyr, Toussaint L'Ouverture."
With American sympathies surgiEg
through one common channel as they have
not surged since the North rose for the free
dom Of the slave; with hearts anxiously
awaiting mighty events that may terminate
in Cuban liberty and government, it is
natural for moment to turn again toward
that people Of the West Indies, who already
have fought their fight, and, by the aid of
the hero of Wendell Phillips eulogy, at
tained their independence and joined the sis
terhood of nations
TO study this all l-around genius Of free
dom convenient guide is a book entitled
Toussaint LOuverture, the Hero Of St.
Domingo; Soldier, Statesman, Martyr; or,
Hayti's Struggle, Triumph, Independence,
W
G. w. Mossell, A. M, B. D., member of the
African Methodist Episcopal church, and
student Of Haytian history, to whom several
years of residence in the island furnished
advantages for exhaustive research. In the
opinion of Booker T. Washington the book
'is valuable addition to our race litera-
ture,' testimony of Importance coming as it
does from that living leader Of the African
race in America most DISTINGUISHED in the
tr1umphs of peace
a Black of the Blacks.
Despite his name that seems to imply an
ancestry at least partially Ere ench, Toussaint
L'Ouverture was black of the blacks; his
rather, son OF King, victim of the slave
trade, was brought to San Domingo about the
middle of the last century, and was of a
tribe IN the kingdom of Dahomey a king
dom that Chicago enterprise exhibited at
the Worlds Fair in the persons of some in
teresting specimens in the famous Midway.
-~ village. Equally African was Toussaint's
mr. =. Toussaint was born on a plantation
me Count de Noe, at Cape Hayti, May 20,
a746. The boy started with the name Pierre
dominique Toussaint, surnamed at first
Breda; later he became L'Ouverture. He was
crooked stick, physically, but a child of
nerve and daring, and horsemanship was one
OF his early accomplishments. His father.
Goau Guinou, taught him the language of the
Aradas, his ancestral African tribe, and such
knowledge of medicine pertains to the
properties of plants. The sagacious mentor
of his youth, his godfather, indeed, was a
black scholar, taught by Jesuit missionary.
named Pierre Baptiste. Toussant was a
boy OF strong natural capacities-he had a
prod1gious memory, and an astonishing fac
ulty OF assimilation One of the authors
ne read was Caesar. Generalship was an art
that he studied in the life of this master and
the lives of other military chieftains By and
ny this black boy showed himself star pupil
Grown to manhood, his became a figure of
dignity. His face was round and almost
6eardless; his nostrils in their distention
showed the characteristic Of his race: his
lips were thick, his eyes sparkling. He wore
his hair In queue, after the French mode;
his clothes were fashionable; so were his
jewelry and accouterments. When be be-
came the occupant of his own domicile It was
nished When he married, which he did in
his plantation days, he took wife from q
woman OF his own tribe, her name Susan
Simon. .-
Liberator Appears.
The revolution that gave Napoleon to
giving liberator to the slaves Of San Do
minSo. Even there they heard the roar Of
the mob around the Bastile, and it was the
execution of a co!ored man who had come
from France. bearing the charter granted by
the National Assembly, that fired the mad
ness of the San Domingo serfs, and black
and mulatto rose in revolt. Terrible atroc-
tiles were committed, especially in the
north. Toussaint, manager of the sugar re-
nnery OF the Breda plantation, cared for his
unfortunate masters until they escaped from
the neighborhood OF disturbance, and then
threw himself into the insurrection. To be
white was sufficient reason to be massacred
The revolt was widespread and ferocious. At
this period more than 100000 negroes in a
single quarter OF the north were abroad for
vengeance; their arms were primitive their
gums being few BY his natural gifts and his
knowledge of strategy Toussaint, amid these
barbarous surroundings, In no long time came
to the front. He began to win fights One
day a French commissioner remarked: "This
negro makes an opening everywhere" So
Toussaint came to his historic and immortal
surname, L'Ouverture. that is to say, in
French. the Opener" LOuverture's star
over to the French republicans of the island
the latter, strengthened by his blacks, were
stronger than the royalists whom the British
had aided, and L'Ouverture became the most
influential man in San Domingo The English
evacuated tho island in 1898. Already in 1875
the French Assembly had conciliated the
blacks of San Domingo with an edct of eman-
cipation, and Spain had ceded the eastern part
of the island to France, which was occupied
by L'Ouverture, who bad been appointed
general al-in-chief of the island forces in 1897.
He governed in the name Of France until 1901.
when lie practically declared independence.
A Unique Hero. ~
It was nothing less than remarkable man
who gradually overcame the factional dissen-
sions Of his distracted island at one time and
another encountered in battle the forces of
France, England, and Spain; prepared the
colony for the conditions Of peace and civil
status, and in general qualified it to wear the
crown that his unusual talents for leadership
had wrought for itself government But q
stronger man that this unique black was to be
his overthrow. There came from France
from Napoleon-delegates3 bringing the new
French constitution, in which special pro-
vision was made for the government of the
colonies of France. It specifically provided
that "the sacred principle of equality and
liberty will not be interfered with and will moi
under any circumstances suffer modification
or extinction" This proclamation Of Ma.
poleon LOuverture did not make public in Sar
Domingo. When asked why he withheld The
proclamation he explained that 1t was no
addressed to him officially, and that the free.
dom his people wanted was the absolute
adoption of the principle that all men, red
black and white, are born free and cannotb
the property of any other man. We are free
today, because we are the strongest in Other
words, by virtue of might. The First Consu
(Napoleon) even now maintains slavery a.
Martinique and at Bourbon, and when HI
has the power to accomplish 1t we may agar
be reduced to slavery
The 1st of May, 1901, LOuverture promul
gated his constitution, by which he was to b,
President for life and began his career o
civil administrator over his demoralizet
s,1o Iie oP