page_title: Toussaint Louverture
section_title: Treaties with Britain and the United States: 1798
hierarchical_section_title: Toussaint Louverture / Haitian Revolution / Treaties with Britain and the United States: 1798
caption_attribution_description: English: Toussaint Louverture and General Thomas Maitland, Saint-Domingue, 1790s. Français&#160;: Toussaint Louverture et le général Thomas Maitland, Saint-Domingue, années 1790.
context_page_description: François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture was a Haitian general and the most prominent leader of the Haitian Revolution. He first fought for the Spanish against the French; then for France against Spain and Great Britain; and finally, he fought on behalf of Saint-Domingue in the era of Napoleonic France. As a leader of the growing resistance, his military and political acumen saved the gains of the first black insurrection in November 1791, helping to transform the slave insurgency into a revolutionary movement. By 1800 Saint-Domingue, the most prosperous French slave colony of the time, had become the first free colonial society to have explicitly rejected race as the basis of social ranking. Louverture is now known as the "Father of Haiti".
  Already a free man and a Jacobin, Louverture began his military career as a leader of the 1791 slave rebellion in Saint-Domingue. Initially allied with the Spaniards of neighboring Santo Domingo, Louverture switched allegiance to the French when the new government abolished slavery. He gradually established control over the whole island and used political and military tactics to gain dominance over his rivals.
context_section_description: For several months, Louverture was in sole command of French Saint-Domingue, except for a semi-autonomous state in the south, where general André Rigaud had rejected the authority of the third commission. Both generals continued attacking the British, whose position on Saint-Domingue was looking increasingly weak. Louverture was negotiating their withdrawal when France's latest commissioner, Gabriel Hédouville, arrived in March 1798, with orders to undermine his authority.
  On 30 April 1798, Louverture signed a treaty with the British general, Thomas Maitland, exchanging the withdrawal of British troops from western Saint-Domingue for an amnesty for the French counter-revolutionaries in those areas. In May, Port-au-Prince was returned to French rule in an atmosphere of order and celebration.
  In July, Louverture and Rigaud met commissioner Hédouville together. Hoping to create a rivalry that would diminish Louverture's power, Hédouville displayed a strong preference for Rigaud, and an aversion to Louverture. However, General Maitland was also playing on French rivalries and evaded Hédouville's authority to deal with Louverture directly. In August, Louverture and Maitland signed treaties for the evacuation of the remaining British troops. On 31 August, they signed a secret treaty which lifted the British blockade on Saint-Domingue in exchange for a promise that Louverture would not export the black revolution to the British colony of Jamaica, which also used slaves to produce sugar.
  As Louverture's relationship with Hédouville reached the breaking point, an uprising began among the troops of his adopted nephew, Hyacinthe Moïse. Attempts by Hédouville to manage the situation made matters worse and Louverture declined to help him. As the rebellion grew to a full-scale insurrection, Hédouville prepared to leave the island, while Louverture and Dessalines threatened to arrest him as a troublemaker. Hédouville sailed for France in October 1798, nominally transferring his authority to Rigaud. Louverture decided instead to work with Phillipe Roume, a member of the third commission who had been posted to the Spanish parts of the colony. Though Louverture continued to protest his loyalty to the French government, he had expelled a second government representative from the territory and was about to negotiate another autonomous agreement with one of France's enemies.
  The United States had suspended trade with France in 1798 because of increasing conflict over piracy. The two countries were almost at war, but trade between Saint-Domingue and the United States was desirable to both Louverture and the United States. With Hédouville gone, Louverture sent Joseph Bunel to negotiate with the government of John Adams. The terms of the treaty were similar to those already established with the British, but Louverture continually resisted suggestions from either power that he should declare independence. As long as France maintained the abolition of slavery, he appeared to be content to have the colony remain French, at least in name.
caption: General Thomas Maitland meets Louverture to discuss the secret treaty
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