1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:00,570 2 00:00:00,570 --> 00:00:04,100 Where we left off in the last video, Toussaint L'Ouverture 3 00:00:04,100 --> 00:00:09,250 had just been betrayed, on some level, first by some of 4 00:00:09,250 --> 00:00:13,310 his right-hand men, because they joined the side of 5 00:00:13,310 --> 00:00:16,020 Leclerc-- or essentially they gave up rebelling against 6 00:00:16,020 --> 00:00:18,750 Leclerc-- convinced that Leclerc wasn't that bad, that 7 00:00:18,750 --> 00:00:21,850 he had no intention of reinstating slavery or taking 8 00:00:21,850 --> 00:00:26,100 away the civil rights of the freemen of African descent. 9 00:00:26,100 --> 00:00:28,960 This is another picture of Leclerc, right here. 10 00:00:28,960 --> 00:00:31,820 This is Leclerc. 11 00:00:31,820 --> 00:00:35,410 So he had to essentially give up his arms. He went to 12 00:00:35,410 --> 00:00:38,590 negotiate with Leclerc, Leclerc imprisoned him, put 13 00:00:38,590 --> 00:00:41,150 him on a boat, and sent him to France and he died the next 14 00:00:41,150 --> 00:00:42,120 year in 1803. 15 00:00:42,120 --> 00:00:43,370 So he was betrayed. 16 00:00:43,370 --> 00:00:50,230 17 00:00:50,230 --> 00:00:53,570 And he really was, on a lot of levels, one of the most 18 00:00:53,570 --> 00:00:56,400 important leaders not just in Haitian 19 00:00:56,400 --> 00:00:57,500 history, but in general. 20 00:00:57,500 --> 00:01:00,990 When he took power, as I said before, he didn't take revenge 21 00:01:00,990 --> 00:01:02,390 on the white population. 22 00:01:02,390 --> 00:01:07,840 He helped the economy of Haiti get back up and running. 23 00:01:07,840 --> 00:01:11,630 He actually helped defend what is now Haiti, but 24 00:01:11,630 --> 00:01:16,550 Saint-Domingue against the British Royal Navy. 25 00:01:16,550 --> 00:01:18,400 I forgot to mention that. 26 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:28,300 Defended against the British Navy, which at the time was by 27 00:01:28,300 --> 00:01:30,850 far the dominant navy in the world. 28 00:01:30,850 --> 00:01:33,960 So this is what really earned his reputation as a great 29 00:01:33,960 --> 00:01:37,620 general, on top of being a great leader in terms of not 30 00:01:37,620 --> 00:01:40,620 exacting revenge, in terms of not having slash and burn 31 00:01:40,620 --> 00:01:44,430 tactics, in terms of not just ravaging his enemies. 32 00:01:44,430 --> 00:01:48,580 So he was betrayed, and then just to make it clear that 33 00:01:48,580 --> 00:01:54,620 Leclerc really does deserve devil horns of a sort-- 34 00:01:54,620 --> 00:01:57,340 although we're about to meet someone who deserves much 35 00:01:57,340 --> 00:01:59,880 bigger devil horns, or maybe that he was actually the 36 00:01:59,880 --> 00:02:03,400 henchman for someone who deserves devil horns-- in May 37 00:02:03,400 --> 00:02:14,470 of 1802, Napoleon signs a law that reinstates slavery where 38 00:02:14,470 --> 00:02:15,720 it has not disappeared. 39 00:02:15,720 --> 00:02:25,780 40 00:02:25,780 --> 00:02:27,720 And so it was a little bit ambiguous. 41 00:02:27,720 --> 00:02:30,860 There were some areas where slavery had still not 42 00:02:30,860 --> 00:02:32,250 disappeared. 43 00:02:32,250 --> 00:02:39,430 Those include the French colonies at Martinique, at 44 00:02:39,430 --> 00:02:43,620 Saint Lucia, at Tobago. 45 00:02:43,620 --> 00:02:47,090 But in Haiti-- or Saint-Domingue, at that time-- 46 00:02:47,090 --> 00:02:48,680 things were a little ambiguous. 47 00:02:48,680 --> 00:02:52,600 Had slavery truly disappeared, or had it not disappeared yet? 48 00:02:52,600 --> 00:02:54,440 Apparently, slaves were free in Haiti. 49 00:02:54,440 --> 00:02:58,660 So it wasn't clear exactly what this meant for Haiti, but 50 00:02:58,660 --> 00:03:00,180 at the same time, the Haitians didn't even 51 00:03:00,180 --> 00:03:01,020 know this was happening. 52 00:03:01,020 --> 00:03:03,750 This was May of 1802. 53 00:03:03,750 --> 00:03:09,500 But just to make things clear, Napoleon actually sent Leclerc 54 00:03:09,500 --> 00:03:13,630 a secret memo to essentially reinstate slavery when the 55 00:03:13,630 --> 00:03:14,880 time was right. 56 00:03:14,880 --> 00:03:26,800 57 00:03:26,800 --> 00:03:29,540 So these guys, they were no jokers. 58 00:03:29,540 --> 00:03:31,020 They knew the situation. 59 00:03:31,020 --> 00:03:35,260 They knew that they needed the help of some of Toussaint 60 00:03:35,260 --> 00:03:39,570 L'Ouverture's former generals, former right-hand men, in 61 00:03:39,570 --> 00:03:41,860 order to keep control of Haiti. 62 00:03:41,860 --> 00:03:44,670 But the intention the entire time was, when they have the 63 00:03:44,670 --> 00:03:49,090 upper hand, to actually clamp down, reinstate slavery, and 64 00:03:49,090 --> 00:03:53,350 take away the civil rights of the freemen of color. 65 00:03:53,350 --> 00:03:56,000 Now these guys weren't stupid either. 66 00:03:56,000 --> 00:03:58,450 So you might remember Dessalines. 67 00:03:58,450 --> 00:04:00,560 This was one picture of him. 68 00:04:00,560 --> 00:04:05,560 He was also a former slave, one of Toussaint L'Ouverture's 69 00:04:05,560 --> 00:04:09,560 right-hand men, very effective general. 70 00:04:09,560 --> 00:04:12,840 And, as you remember, near the end of the fight against 71 00:04:12,840 --> 00:04:15,850 Leclerc, he gave up the fight against Leclerc and to some 72 00:04:15,850 --> 00:04:18,410 degree you could say he turned on Toussaint L'Ouverture. 73 00:04:18,410 --> 00:04:22,140 But he and some of the other former followers of 74 00:04:22,140 --> 00:04:24,170 L'Ouverture saw the writing on the wall. 75 00:04:24,170 --> 00:04:26,320 They didn't even have to intercept that secret memo. 76 00:04:26,320 --> 00:04:31,750 They got word from Martinique and Tobago and Saint Lucia 77 00:04:31,750 --> 00:04:35,120 that slavery was being reinstated. 78 00:04:35,120 --> 00:04:38,030 The French at this time were not people that you wanted to 79 00:04:38,030 --> 00:04:42,360 deal with or trust when it came to issues of slavery. 80 00:04:42,360 --> 00:04:50,720 So Dessalines and his comrades re-took up arms. And 81 00:04:50,720 --> 00:04:54,210 Dessalines was a very different character than 82 00:04:54,210 --> 00:04:56,080 Toussaint L'Ouverture. 83 00:04:56,080 --> 00:04:59,760 The one similarity is that they were both very effective 84 00:04:59,760 --> 00:05:01,220 military men. 85 00:05:01,220 --> 00:05:05,390 The big difference between the two was that Dessalines was 86 00:05:05,390 --> 00:05:06,900 not one to hold back. 87 00:05:06,900 --> 00:05:12,380 88 00:05:12,380 --> 00:05:17,665 He wasn't afraid to essentially take an eye for an 89 00:05:17,665 --> 00:05:18,660 eye, so to speak. 90 00:05:18,660 --> 00:05:22,670 So here you had Dessalines in charge of what was, I guess 91 00:05:22,670 --> 00:05:25,200 you could call, the slave rebel army. 92 00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:28,800 And then on the other side of it, you have Leclerc with the 93 00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:33,540 40,000 troops that he showed up, with Napoleon. 94 00:05:33,540 --> 00:05:37,830 But lucky for Dessalines, yellow fever-- 95 00:05:37,830 --> 00:05:38,660 and it's not lucky. 96 00:05:38,660 --> 00:05:40,910 I mean, people died across the board. 97 00:05:40,910 --> 00:05:46,900 But this did really turn the tide of war in favor of the 98 00:05:46,900 --> 00:05:49,370 people of African descent on the island. 99 00:05:49,370 --> 00:05:58,595 Yellow fever struck the island, it killed Leclerc, and 100 00:05:58,595 --> 00:06:02,000 it also took out twenty something thousand-- or the 101 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:06,670 number I read was 24,000-- of the actual French soldiers, 102 00:06:06,670 --> 00:06:08,430 and another 8,000 were hospitalized. 103 00:06:08,430 --> 00:06:11,270 So that's 32,000 out of commission, so you're 104 00:06:11,270 --> 00:06:15,485 essentially only left with 8,000 soldiers. 105 00:06:15,485 --> 00:06:17,910 So all of a sudden, it completely turned the tide, 106 00:06:17,910 --> 00:06:22,530 completely changed the numbers in terms of what types of 107 00:06:22,530 --> 00:06:27,370 forces the rebel army had to fight against. 108 00:06:27,370 --> 00:06:32,030 But it wasn't all good at this point because Leclerc-- I 109 00:06:32,030 --> 00:06:35,110 mentioned, I gave him little devil horns-- he was replaced 110 00:06:35,110 --> 00:06:41,440 by someone who deserves very big devil horns named 111 00:06:41,440 --> 00:06:42,690 Rochambeau. 112 00:06:42,690 --> 00:06:45,310 113 00:06:45,310 --> 00:06:48,770 Not to be confused with his father, who goes by the same 114 00:06:48,770 --> 00:06:52,380 name who was a hero of the American Revolution. 115 00:06:52,380 --> 00:06:56,810 He fought for France on the side of the Americans. 116 00:06:56,810 --> 00:07:00,040 And he, as far as I can tell, seemed like a decent guy. 117 00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:03,570 But his son was really evil. 118 00:07:03,570 --> 00:07:06,690 And there are very few people in history that you can say 119 00:07:06,690 --> 00:07:08,990 are unambiguously evil. 120 00:07:08,990 --> 00:07:10,700 He is one of them. 121 00:07:10,700 --> 00:07:15,090 Now that he was kind of desperate, his forces were 122 00:07:15,090 --> 00:07:19,120 ravaged by yellow fever, he's going against a fairly 123 00:07:19,120 --> 00:07:25,990 aggressive enemy, he did things like-- let me write 124 00:07:25,990 --> 00:07:28,180 these down because they are evil. 125 00:07:28,180 --> 00:07:33,035 He would bury African-- or I guess I 126 00:07:33,035 --> 00:07:34,070 should say African Americans. 127 00:07:34,070 --> 00:07:37,605 He would bury former slaves, or people of African descent-- 128 00:07:37,605 --> 00:07:44,985 bury in, bury alive in pits of insects. 129 00:07:44,985 --> 00:07:47,960 130 00:07:47,960 --> 00:07:50,440 He would boil people alive in molasses. 131 00:07:50,440 --> 00:07:58,580 132 00:07:58,580 --> 00:08:01,650 I read one account that says that at one point he held a 133 00:08:01,650 --> 00:08:07,670 ball where he invited all of the prominent mixed-race 134 00:08:07,670 --> 00:08:11,630 people to a party essentially at his place and at the stroke 135 00:08:11,630 --> 00:08:12,920 of midnight he announced that all of the 136 00:08:12,920 --> 00:08:14,170 men are to be murdered. 137 00:08:14,170 --> 00:08:18,980 138 00:08:18,980 --> 00:08:22,710 The only bounds on his cruelty was the people that he could 139 00:08:22,710 --> 00:08:26,000 get his hands on, especially the people of African descent. 140 00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:30,480 The one positive of his cruelty is that he for the 141 00:08:30,480 --> 00:08:36,549 first time really unified the population of African descent 142 00:08:36,549 --> 00:08:37,419 on the island. 143 00:08:37,419 --> 00:08:49,280 So he unified both the slaves, the former slaves, and the 144 00:08:49,280 --> 00:08:50,530 mixed-race. 145 00:08:50,530 --> 00:08:56,530 146 00:08:56,530 --> 00:09:03,160 And at the same time, we're now in 1803. 147 00:09:03,160 --> 00:09:05,090 And, I've said it before, we're 148 00:09:05,090 --> 00:09:06,340 still at war with Britain. 149 00:09:06,340 --> 00:09:11,120 150 00:09:11,120 --> 00:09:14,500 And Britain is-- and I've mentioned it before-- they had 151 00:09:14,500 --> 00:09:17,000 the most dominant navy in the world. 152 00:09:17,000 --> 00:09:25,600 153 00:09:25,600 --> 00:09:30,200 This guy, despite how evil and how cruel he was, he needed 154 00:09:30,200 --> 00:09:33,210 reinforcements from Napoleon if he had to take on 155 00:09:33,210 --> 00:09:34,360 Dessalines. 156 00:09:34,360 --> 00:09:37,390 And let me be very clear about this. 157 00:09:37,390 --> 00:09:40,800 Dessalines, as I mentioned, he was not hesitant to take an 158 00:09:40,800 --> 00:09:42,150 eye for an eye. 159 00:09:42,150 --> 00:09:47,670 In one incident, Rochambeau buried 500 rebel prisoners 160 00:09:47,670 --> 00:09:52,790 alive, then Dessalines went and hung 500 French prisoners. 161 00:09:52,790 --> 00:09:55,600 So he wasn't someone to kind of shy away 162 00:09:55,600 --> 00:09:58,540 from, I guess, blood. 163 00:09:58,540 --> 00:10:01,610 And this is very different to Toussaint L'Ouverture. 164 00:10:01,610 --> 00:10:02,470 It's kind of a lesson. 165 00:10:02,470 --> 00:10:05,980 If you are fighting an enemy, if you get rid of the more 166 00:10:05,980 --> 00:10:13,850 reasonable leaders of your enemy, you might end up 167 00:10:13,850 --> 00:10:18,050 getting maybe a leader more similar to yourself and your 168 00:10:18,050 --> 00:10:22,620 cruelty, if you betrayed the more reasonable ones. 169 00:10:22,620 --> 00:10:25,330 But anyway, enough of my commentary. 170 00:10:25,330 --> 00:10:27,470 So the stage is set. 171 00:10:27,470 --> 00:10:28,340 War with Britain. 172 00:10:28,340 --> 00:10:31,940 Britain owns the seas, especially the Caribbean. 173 00:10:31,940 --> 00:10:37,900 This guy needs reinforcements going against a very strong 174 00:10:37,900 --> 00:10:42,160 leader of the former slave rebels. 175 00:10:42,160 --> 00:10:45,890 But Napoleon, he's known to be one to cut his losses. 176 00:10:45,890 --> 00:10:47,380 He did it with his troops in Egypt. 177 00:10:47,380 --> 00:10:49,970 He's really not someone who really cares, I think, about 178 00:10:49,970 --> 00:10:50,495 the individual. 179 00:10:50,495 --> 00:10:54,280 He cares much more about his ego and his power. 180 00:10:54,280 --> 00:10:55,910 So Napoleon leaves them hanging. 181 00:10:55,910 --> 00:11:02,790 182 00:11:02,790 --> 00:11:03,800 Napoleon saw the writing on the wall. 183 00:11:03,800 --> 00:11:06,655 He wouldn't be able to get through the British fleet. 184 00:11:06,655 --> 00:11:08,460 And at the same time, Napoleon's fighting all of 185 00:11:08,460 --> 00:11:09,550 these wars in Europe. 186 00:11:09,550 --> 00:11:11,720 As you remember, the whole French Revolution was 187 00:11:11,720 --> 00:11:14,090 precipitated by France being broke. 188 00:11:14,090 --> 00:11:17,010 So Napoleon, not only does he give up on this guy-- and he 189 00:11:17,010 --> 00:11:19,400 essentially got what he deserved-- Napoleon gives up 190 00:11:19,400 --> 00:11:23,910 on maintaining all of their colonies or any major presence 191 00:11:23,910 --> 00:11:25,150 in the Western Hemisphere. 192 00:11:25,150 --> 00:11:30,320 So essentially to raise funds, Napoleon also sells Louisiana 193 00:11:30,320 --> 00:11:31,346 to the Americans. 194 00:11:31,346 --> 00:11:34,300 Now when I say Louisiana, I'm not talking about just the 195 00:11:34,300 --> 00:11:36,930 state of Louisiana in its present state, which 196 00:11:36,930 --> 00:11:37,900 is about that big. 197 00:11:37,900 --> 00:11:39,800 That's actually where I was born. 198 00:11:39,800 --> 00:11:42,080 We're talking about the whole-- this is like 1/3 of 199 00:11:42,080 --> 00:11:44,180 the United States today. 200 00:11:44,180 --> 00:11:45,580 Sold all of this. 201 00:11:45,580 --> 00:11:48,140 202 00:11:48,140 --> 00:11:51,780 And he was clearly desperate. 203 00:11:51,780 --> 00:11:56,330 He sold it for $15 million, or that's the 204 00:11:56,330 --> 00:12:03,350 equivalent of F60 million. 205 00:12:03,350 --> 00:12:06,220 And I've been told, in today's money, that would be on the 206 00:12:06,220 --> 00:12:10,480 order of $10 billion. 207 00:12:10,480 --> 00:12:13,720 You know, if someone said for $10 billion, you could own 1/3 208 00:12:13,720 --> 00:12:15,470 of the land of the United States, you would say that's a 209 00:12:15,470 --> 00:12:16,850 pretty good deal. 210 00:12:16,850 --> 00:12:19,100 $10 billion in today's money. 211 00:12:19,100 --> 00:12:23,120 So $15 million 1803, $10 billion today, that's still 212 00:12:23,120 --> 00:12:24,730 not a lot of money, but he was desperate. 213 00:12:24,730 --> 00:12:27,660 He realized that he couldn't maintain control of something 214 00:12:27,660 --> 00:12:30,920 halfway around the world when Britain owned the seas and he 215 00:12:30,920 --> 00:12:34,300 was busy having his own troubles in Europe. 216 00:12:34,300 --> 00:12:36,410 So the Americans got a good deal. 217 00:12:36,410 --> 00:12:38,580 And frankly, if he didn't sell it to the Americans, either 218 00:12:38,580 --> 00:12:40,860 the British or the Americans could have probably 219 00:12:40,860 --> 00:12:43,890 just taken it anyway. 220 00:12:43,890 --> 00:12:48,510 So being left to hang to dry by Napoleon, Dessalines is 221 00:12:48,510 --> 00:12:55,230 able to destroy Rochambeau and essentially declare 222 00:12:55,230 --> 00:13:00,410 independence for Saint-Domingue. 223 00:13:00,410 --> 00:13:09,250 And it 1804, January 1. 224 00:13:09,250 --> 00:13:13,830 Dessalines declares independence for, and he names 225 00:13:13,830 --> 00:13:17,560 the new country Haiti, which is the indigenous peoples' 226 00:13:17,560 --> 00:13:18,640 name for the island. 227 00:13:18,640 --> 00:13:21,010 It means land of the mountains. 228 00:13:21,010 --> 00:13:26,380 Now I want to just leave with one note, because you may or 229 00:13:26,380 --> 00:13:27,100 may not be aware. 230 00:13:27,100 --> 00:13:32,030 Haiti is still a very, very, very, very poor country. 231 00:13:32,030 --> 00:13:35,230 And besides, after Dessalines, they had many, many, many-- 232 00:13:35,230 --> 00:13:38,620 and eventually, I'll do videos on it-- rounds of one dictator 233 00:13:38,620 --> 00:13:39,280 after another. 234 00:13:39,280 --> 00:13:41,120 And the people have really been through a lot. 235 00:13:41,120 --> 00:13:42,880 But I just want to make it clear that they really got 236 00:13:42,880 --> 00:13:45,330 started off on a horrible foot. 237 00:13:45,330 --> 00:13:51,660 Because even though Dessalines declared independence in 1804, 238 00:13:51,660 --> 00:13:55,230 the French did not recognize Haiti until 239 00:13:55,230 --> 00:14:04,730 1805-- sorry- 1825. 240 00:14:04,730 --> 00:14:08,490 And you might say, well, who cares about recognition? 241 00:14:08,490 --> 00:14:11,180 Who cares what the former colonial masters think? 242 00:14:11,180 --> 00:14:12,890 But until they recognized them, they were essentially 243 00:14:12,890 --> 00:14:14,050 embargoing Haiti. 244 00:14:14,050 --> 00:14:16,000 They weren't allowing any trade to 245 00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:17,740 actually go on with Haiti. 246 00:14:17,740 --> 00:14:20,130 So it was really on the front of a barrel gun. 247 00:14:20,130 --> 00:14:27,030 And in order to be recognized, Haiti had to agree to F90 248 00:14:27,030 --> 00:14:33,710 million of debt to France. 249 00:14:33,710 --> 00:14:39,290 250 00:14:39,290 --> 00:14:42,680 And just to be clear how much money this is, here's a small 251 00:14:42,680 --> 00:14:50,440 island-- or half of an island-- of newly freed slaves 252 00:14:50,440 --> 00:14:55,330 and they were forced to owe France-- and this actually was 253 00:14:55,330 --> 00:14:58,850 further reinforced by the United 254 00:14:58,850 --> 00:15:00,140 States and Great Britain. 255 00:15:00,140 --> 00:15:03,460 So it goes to show you, even former enemies can kind of 256 00:15:03,460 --> 00:15:06,210 agree when it comes to a oppressing small 257 00:15:06,210 --> 00:15:08,100 impoverished islands. 258 00:15:08,100 --> 00:15:14,090 But they had to owe France the equivalent of 1 and 1/2 times 259 00:15:14,090 --> 00:15:18,240 what the United States paid for the Louisiana Purchase. 260 00:15:18,240 --> 00:15:19,530 This was F60 million. 261 00:15:19,530 --> 00:15:20,720 They got all of Louisiana. 262 00:15:20,720 --> 00:15:24,830 Now France is telling Haiti, you owe us F90 million. 263 00:15:24,830 --> 00:15:28,470 Or that's roughly the equivalent of $14 or $15 264 00:15:28,470 --> 00:15:33,580 billion in today's terms. And this is for a population of 265 00:15:33,580 --> 00:15:36,230 essentially half a million freed slaves. 266 00:15:36,230 --> 00:15:37,970 So it's kind of a horrendous amount of debt. 267 00:15:37,970 --> 00:15:41,290 And just to be clear, this wasn't like the crazy 268 00:15:41,290 --> 00:15:46,150 colonials in the early 19th century, forcing to do this. 269 00:15:46,150 --> 00:15:58,720 This debt was not paid off with the interest until 1947. 270 00:15:58,720 --> 00:16:00,480 They were continuing to pay the debt. 271 00:16:00,480 --> 00:16:05,580 And just to add insult to injury, the reason for the 272 00:16:05,580 --> 00:16:09,740 debt, they claim, was for lost property. 273 00:16:09,740 --> 00:16:12,420 So that's why France claimed that Haiti owed them the 274 00:16:12,420 --> 00:16:13,775 money, for lost property. 275 00:16:13,775 --> 00:16:17,690 276 00:16:17,690 --> 00:16:20,840 Where, included in the list of lost property 277 00:16:20,840 --> 00:16:23,300 was land and slaves. 278 00:16:23,300 --> 00:16:26,860 Essentially, now that you've got your freedom, you owe us a 279 00:16:26,860 --> 00:16:31,480 ton of money for us losing the rights to own you. 280 00:16:31,480 --> 00:16:32,890 So it's just insult to injury. 281 00:16:32,890 --> 00:16:34,810 And actually, I was shocked the first time I learned this 282 00:16:34,810 --> 00:16:38,310 number, that they were forced to continue to pay debts from 283 00:16:38,310 --> 00:16:43,360 one poor country, one small poor country, right over here, 284 00:16:43,360 --> 00:16:46,830 they had to continue to pay debts to a Western developed 285 00:16:46,830 --> 00:16:53,200 nation until 1947, essentially to buy their freedom. 286 00:16:53,200 --> 00:16:53,733