WEBVTT

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Where we left off in the last
video, Toussaint L'Ouverture

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had just been betrayed, on some
level, first by some of

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his right-hand men, because
they joined the side of

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Leclerc-- or essentially they
gave up rebelling against

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Leclerc-- convinced that Leclerc
wasn't that bad, that

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he had no intention of
reinstating slavery or taking

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away the civil rights of the
freemen of African descent.

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This is another picture of
Leclerc, right here.

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This is Leclerc.

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So he had to essentially give
up his arms. He went to

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negotiate with Leclerc, Leclerc
imprisoned him, put

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him on a boat, and sent him to
France and he died the next

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year in 1803.

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So he was betrayed.

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And he really was, on a lot
of levels, one of the most

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important leaders not
just in Haitian

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history, but in general.

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When he took power, as I said
before, he didn't take revenge

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on the white population.

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He helped the economy of Haiti
get back up and running.

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He actually helped defend
what is now Haiti, but

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Saint-Domingue against the
British Royal Navy.

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I forgot to mention that.

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Defended against the British
Navy, which at the time was by

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far the dominant navy
in the world.

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So this is what really earned
his reputation as a great

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general, on top of being a great
leader in terms of not

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exacting revenge, in terms of
not having slash and burn

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tactics, in terms of not just
ravaging his enemies.

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So he was betrayed, and then
just to make it clear that

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Leclerc really does deserve
devil horns of a sort--

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although we're about to meet
someone who deserves much

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bigger devil horns, or maybe
that he was actually the

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henchman for someone who
deserves devil horns-- in May

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of 1802, Napoleon signs a law
that reinstates slavery where

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it has not disappeared.

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And so it was a little
bit ambiguous.

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There were some areas where
slavery had still not

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disappeared.

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Those include the French
colonies at Martinique, at

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Saint Lucia, at Tobago.

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But in Haiti-- or
Saint-Domingue, at that time--

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things were a little
ambiguous.

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Had slavery truly disappeared,
or had it not disappeared yet?

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Apparently, slaves were
free in Haiti.

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So it wasn't clear exactly what
this meant for Haiti, but

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at the same time, the
Haitians didn't even

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know this was happening.

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This was May of 1802.

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But just to make things clear,
Napoleon actually sent Leclerc

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a secret memo to essentially
reinstate slavery when the

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time was right.

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So these guys, they
were no jokers.

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They knew the situation.

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They knew that they needed the
help of some of Toussaint

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L'Ouverture's former generals,
former right-hand men, in

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order to keep control
of Haiti.

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But the intention the entire
time was, when they have the

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upper hand, to actually clamp
down, reinstate slavery, and

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take away the civil rights
of the freemen of color.

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Now these guys weren't
stupid either.

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So you might remember
Dessalines.

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This was one picture of him.

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He was also a former slave, one
of Toussaint L'Ouverture's

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right-hand men, very
effective general.

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And, as you remember, near the
end of the fight against

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Leclerc, he gave up the fight
against Leclerc and to some

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degree you could say he turned
on Toussaint L'Ouverture.

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But he and some of the other
former followers of

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L'Ouverture saw the writing
on the wall.

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They didn't even have to
intercept that secret memo.

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They got word from Martinique
and Tobago and Saint Lucia

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that slavery was being
reinstated.

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The French at this time were not
people that you wanted to

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deal with or trust when it came
to issues of slavery.

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So Dessalines and his comrades
re-took up arms. And

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Dessalines was a very different
character than

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Toussaint L'Ouverture.

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The one similarity is that they
were both very effective

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military men.

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The big difference between the
two was that Dessalines was

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not one to hold back.

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He wasn't afraid to essentially
take an eye for an

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eye, so to speak.

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So here you had Dessalines in
charge of what was, I guess

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you could call, the
slave rebel army.

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And then on the other side of
it, you have Leclerc with the

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40,000 troops that he showed
up, with Napoleon.

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But lucky for Dessalines,
yellow fever--

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and it's not lucky.

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I mean, people died
across the board.

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But this did really turn the
tide of war in favor of the

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people of African descent
on the island.

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Yellow fever struck the island,
it killed Leclerc, and

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it also took out twenty
something thousand-- or the

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number I read was 24,000-- of
the actual French soldiers,

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and another 8,000 were
hospitalized.

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So that's 32,000 out of
commission, so you're

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essentially only left
with 8,000 soldiers.

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So all of a sudden, it
completely turned the tide,

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completely changed the numbers
in terms of what types of

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forces the rebel army had
to fight against.

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But it wasn't all good at this
point because Leclerc-- I

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mentioned, I gave him little
devil horns-- he was replaced

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by someone who deserves very
big devil horns named

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Rochambeau.

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Not to be confused with his
father, who goes by the same

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name who was a hero of the
American Revolution.

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He fought for France on the
side of the Americans.

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And he, as far as I can tell,
seemed like a decent guy.

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But his son was really evil.

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And there are very few people
in history that you can say

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are unambiguously evil.

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He is one of them.

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Now that he was kind of
desperate, his forces were

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ravaged by yellow fever, he's
going against a fairly

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aggressive enemy, he did things
like-- let me write

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these down because
they are evil.

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He would bury African--
or I guess I

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should say African Americans.

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He would bury former slaves, or
people of African descent--

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bury in, bury alive in
pits of insects.

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He would boil people
alive in molasses.

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I read one account that says
that at one point he held a

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ball where he invited all of
the prominent mixed-race

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people to a party essentially at
his place and at the stroke

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of midnight he announced
that all of the

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men are to be murdered.

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The only bounds on his cruelty
was the people that he could

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get his hands on, especially the
people of African descent.

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The one positive of his cruelty
is that he for the

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first time really unified the
population of African descent

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on the island.

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So he unified both the slaves,
the former slaves, and the

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mixed-race.

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And at the same time,
we're now in 1803.

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And, I've said it before, we're

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still at war with Britain.

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And Britain is-- and I've
mentioned it before-- they had

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the most dominant navy
in the world.

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This guy, despite how evil and
how cruel he was, he needed

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reinforcements from Napoleon
if he had to take on

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Dessalines.

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And let me be very
clear about this.

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Dessalines, as I mentioned, he
was not hesitant to take an

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eye for an eye.

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In one incident, Rochambeau
buried 500 rebel prisoners

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alive, then Dessalines went and
hung 500 French prisoners.

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So he wasn't someone
to kind of shy away

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from, I guess, blood.

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And this is very different
to Toussaint L'Ouverture.

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It's kind of a lesson.

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If you are fighting an enemy,
if you get rid of the more

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reasonable leaders of your
enemy, you might end up

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getting maybe a leader more
similar to yourself and your

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cruelty, if you betrayed the
more reasonable ones.

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But anyway, enough
of my commentary.

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So the stage is set.

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War with Britain.

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Britain owns the seas,
especially the Caribbean.

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This guy needs reinforcements
going against a very strong

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leader of the former
slave rebels.

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But Napoleon, he's known to
be one to cut his losses.

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He did it with his
troops in Egypt.

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He's really not someone who
really cares, I think, about

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the individual.

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He cares much more about
his ego and his power.

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So Napoleon leaves
them hanging.

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Napoleon saw the writing
on the wall.

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He wouldn't be able to get
through the British fleet.

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And at the same time, Napoleon's
fighting all of

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these wars in Europe.

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As you remember, the whole
French Revolution was

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precipitated by France
being broke.

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So Napoleon, not only does he
give up on this guy-- and he

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essentially got what he
deserved-- Napoleon gives up

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on maintaining all of their
colonies or any major presence

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in the Western Hemisphere.

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So essentially to raise funds,
Napoleon also sells Louisiana

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to the Americans.

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Now when I say Louisiana, I'm
not talking about just the

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state of Louisiana in its
present state, which

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is about that big.

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That's actually where
I was born.

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We're talking about the whole--
this is like 1/3 of

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the United States today.

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Sold all of this.

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And he was clearly desperate.

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He sold it for $15 million,
or that's the

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equivalent of F60 million.

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And I've been told, in today's
money, that would be on the

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order of $10 billion.

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You know, if someone said for
$10 billion, you could own 1/3

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of the land of the United
States, you would say that's a

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pretty good deal.

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$10 billion in today's money.

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So $15 million 1803, $10 billion
today, that's still

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not a lot of money, but
he was desperate.

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He realized that he couldn't
maintain control of something

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halfway around the world when
Britain owned the seas and he

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was busy having his own
troubles in Europe.

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So the Americans got
a good deal.

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And frankly, if he didn't sell
it to the Americans, either

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the British or the Americans
could have probably

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just taken it anyway.

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So being left to hang to dry
by Napoleon, Dessalines is

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able to destroy Rochambeau
and essentially declare

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independence for
Saint-Domingue.

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And it 1804, January 1.

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Dessalines declares independence
for, and he names

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the new country Haiti, which
is the indigenous peoples'

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name for the island.

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It means land of
the mountains.

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Now I want to just leave with
one note, because you may or

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may not be aware.

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Haiti is still a very, very,
very, very poor country.

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And besides, after Dessalines,
they had many, many, many--

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and eventually, I'll do videos
on it-- rounds of one dictator

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after another.

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And the people have really
been through a lot.

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But I just want to make it clear
that they really got

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started off on a
horrible foot.

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Because even though Dessalines
declared independence in 1804,

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the French did not recognize
Haiti until

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1805-- sorry- 1825.

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And you might say, well, who
cares about recognition?

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Who cares what the former
colonial masters think?

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But until they recognized them,
they were essentially

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embargoing Haiti.

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They weren't allowing
any trade to

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actually go on with Haiti.

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So it was really on the
front of a barrel gun.

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And in order to be recognized,
Haiti had to agree to F90

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million of debt to France.

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And just to be clear how much
money this is, here's a small

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island-- or half of an island--
of newly freed slaves

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and they were forced to owe
France-- and this actually was

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further reinforced
by the United

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States and Great Britain.

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So it goes to show you, even
former enemies can kind of

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agree when it comes to
a oppressing small

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impoverished islands.

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But they had to owe France the
equivalent of 1 and 1/2 times

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what the United States paid for
the Louisiana Purchase.

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This was F60 million.

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They got all of Louisiana.

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Now France is telling Haiti,
you owe us F90 million.

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Or that's roughly the equivalent
of $14 or $15

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billion in today's terms. And
this is for a population of

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essentially half a million
freed slaves.

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So it's kind of a horrendous
amount of debt.

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And just to be clear, this
wasn't like the crazy

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colonials in the early 19th
century, forcing to do this.

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This debt was not paid off with
the interest until 1947.

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They were continuing
to pay the debt.

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And just to add insult to
injury, the reason for the

00:16:05.580 --> 00:16:09.740
debt, they claim, was
for lost property.

00:16:09.740 --> 00:16:12.420
So that's why France claimed
that Haiti owed them the

00:16:12.420 --> 00:16:13.775
money, for lost property.

00:16:13.775 --> 00:16:17.690


00:16:17.690 --> 00:16:20.840
Where, included in the
list of lost property

00:16:20.840 --> 00:16:23.300
was land and slaves.

00:16:23.300 --> 00:16:26.860
Essentially, now that you've got
your freedom, you owe us a

00:16:26.860 --> 00:16:31.480
ton of money for us losing
the rights to own you.

00:16:31.480 --> 00:16:32.890
So it's just insult to injury.

00:16:32.890 --> 00:16:34.810
And actually, I was shocked the
first time I learned this

00:16:34.810 --> 00:16:38.310
number, that they were forced to
continue to pay debts from

00:16:38.310 --> 00:16:43.360
one poor country, one small poor
country, right over here,

00:16:43.360 --> 00:16:46.830
they had to continue to pay
debts to a Western developed

00:16:46.830 --> 00:16:53.200
nation until 1947, essentially
to buy their freedom.

00:16:53.200 --> 00:16:53.733