Legacy Will Never Be Forgotten

Political skill, moral leadership, compassion are three qualities that Abraham Lincoln had. Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States of America. He was one of the best leaders the country had ever known. Lincoln is remembered as the leader in preserving the Union during the civil war and starting the Emancipation Proclamation that helped lead to the end of slavery. Although Lincoln was remembered for his leadership, determination, and perseverance; not everyone agreed with Lincoln during his position in office. Lincoln overstepped his power by making laws he was not allowed too. During the Civil war Lincoln instituted a command that allowed civilian areas to be under military control. These commands allowed the military to arrest civilians suspected of disloyalty and try them. President Lincoln overstepped his boundaries when creating this law. Lincoln will be remembered as an amazing leader even though he made a few mistakes, just like Toussaint Louverture. Toussaint L'ouverture also known as “Papa Toussaint,” is remembered as the father of his country. L'ouverture led the only successful slave revolution in history. Louverture relates to Lincoln because they are both amazing leaders but even the best of leaders make mistakes. At times Louverture overstepped his boundaries as a leader. He wanted to “better” the economy, and by doing this he made laws that took away freedom of movement. He didn't want the economy to crash so he made a law stating that all workers must stay on their plantation they were assigned to.  Louverture and Lincoln have both made mistakes but have also had many successes during their reign of power. They will both be remembered in history for their actions. Toussaint Louverture should be remembered mostly as the liberator of slaves. He then should be remembered as a great ruler of Saint Domingue, and lastly as a strong military commander.

Toussaint Louverture should be remembered mostly as the liberator of slaves. Toussaint Louverture has always fought against slavery. During the revolution he was always on the side that wanted to abolish slavery. In 1789, the french revolution began. In 1791, slave revolts began in the north of Saint Domingue, now known as Haiti.(Doc.A) Toussaint joined the revolution serving as a doctor to the troops. Toussaint Initially did not want to be involved in the fighting, but in 1792, Toussaint gained a reputation as a military commander.(Doc.A) The french government under Robespierre abolishes slavery in France and it colonies in 1794. Toussaint and his troops stop the revolution and support the French. (Doc.A) Toussaint L'ouverture may have seemed like a traitor at times, for he always joined sides of the revolution that wanted to abolish slavery. Louveture wrote a letter to the French Directory threatening them if they were to reinstate slavery then their would be war once again. Louverture wrote, “but today when they have left it, if they had a thousand lives, they would sacrifice them all rather than be subjected again to slavery…” Louverture is saying that if they need to, Louverture and his men will fight till death than have slavery be reinstated. (Doc.B) In Toussaints letter he also wrote, “could men who have once enjoyed the benefits of liberty look calmly while it is taken from them!” He was angry that the French government would take away people's freedom after they had already been freed. (Doc.B) Toussaint wanted freedom throughout and didn’t care if he had to fight for it or not, he was passionate about liberty. In 1801, Toussaint Louverture signed the Saint Domingue Constitution. In Article 3 of the constitution it states, “There cannot exist slaves in this territory, servitude is therein forever abolished. All men are born, live and die free and French.” (Doc.C) This Article promises all inhabitants of Saint Domingue that slavery will never be reinforced and all men are born free. Toussaint Louverture fought for his freedom, and wanted to ensure that he remains free. Toussaint Louverture should always be remembered as the liberator of slaves.

Toussaint Louverture should be remembered as the ruler of saint domingue. Toussaint Louverture helped write the Constitution of 1801. Article 28 of the Constitution states Toussaint Louverture governor of Saint Domingue for life. It says, “the constitution nominate citizen Toussaint-Louverture, Chief General of the army of Saint-Domingue and … he is entrusted the direction thereof for the remainder of his glorious life.” (Doc.C) All of Saint Domingue is now under Toussaint Louverture rule. The constitution carefully states how Saint Domingue should be ruled and encourages maintaining the plantation work. There was emphasis on agricultural work, to help maintain the economy. Toussaint Louverture helped set a Proclamation addressing that all free slaves must remain on their plantation. In article 15 it states, “each plantation… shall represent the quiet haven of an active and constant family, of which the owner of the land… shall be the father.” (Doc.C)This article is saying the owner of the land still has the power to run the plantation but everyone on the land has equal revenues. Four months after the Constitution of 1801 was passed, Louverture made a proclamation. (Doc.D) People did not like this proclamation because they wanted to work on different plantations, and they thought this law was restricting their freedom. As ruler of Saint Domingue,  Louverture made this proclamation to keep to the economy from crashing. Many workers were refusing to work on their plantations they were assigned. The workers felt like they were being forced to do the work they did as slaves as if nothing changed, and started to rebel. Louverture made strict consequences to anyone that broke this proclamation. He threatened, “Any individual… tending to incite sedition [actions against the authority of the nation] shall be brought before the court martial [military court] and be punished in conformity with the law.” (Doc.D) If anyone were to break the laws they would have to go on a trial. Louverture was thinking as a leader when he created these laws. It showed people he was here to stay and people must obey him . Toussaint Louverture leadership skills helped provide stability to Saint Domingue by making laws and ensuring the economy would not drop. He will also be remembered as a strong leader of Saint Domingue.

Toussaint Louverture should be remembered as an imperial military commander. Toussaint Louverture did not have mercy on anyone. In 1801, Hyacinthe Moyse, Louverture's nephew, challenged Toussaints laws and organized a rebellion. Moyse did not believed it was wrong for Louverture to support plantation farming. Moyse thought the land should be split up into smaller sections of land, and everyone had a piece of their own land. In an article it said, “the more [Toussaint’s] military had to [force]the former plantation slaves to do plantation labor, the more unpopular the army became…” (Doc.E) Moyse and the other former slaves did not agree with Toussaint. They distrusted him because he was too friendly with the white landowners. On the night of October 29, 1801 a revolt broke out in the Northern Plain and many whites were massacred. Moyse had led a revolt against Louverture’s laws, Louverture was enraged. Toussaint Louverture ordered the men that participated in the revolt “to step out of the ranks and blow their brains out.’ (Doc.E) Toussaint even killed his own nephew, in the article it says, “Toussaint ordered Moyse’s arrest and had him confined in the fort of Port de Paix…” (Doc.E) Toussaint Louverture is responsible for his own nephews execution. In 1801, Napoleon was determined to take control over Saint DOmingue once again, with the goal to reinstate slavery. Napoleon sent 31,131 troops onto Saint Domingue. (Doc.F)Knowing Napoleon and his troops were making their way to Samana, a port city on the east side of Santo Domingo, Louverture gathered his men and burnt the city down, and then fled to mountains. He did not want Napoleon having any resources, this forced Napoleon's troops to head for the mountains. (Doc.F) Louverture was smart for fleeing to the mountains because his army knew the mountain terrain better than Napoleon's troops and it was element of surprise. Toussaint used his superior military knowledge to lead his troops into a victory. Toussaint Louverture was an excellent military commander and will be remembered for the execution of his nephew and leading troops into war with people that wanted to enslave them.

Although Toussaint Louverture indecent actions he is remembered as a great man. He will be remembered mostly as the liberator of slaves, a great ruler of Saint Domingue, and a strong military commander.Louverture or “Papa Toussaint,” helped sculpt the nation of Saint Domingue and his legacy will live on.

Sources:

Document A - Timeline of Abolition in Saint Domingue.

Timeline created from various sources

Document B -  Letter to the French Directory, November 1797.

Toussaint Louverture, "Letter to the French Directory, November 1797"

Document C - Constitution of 1801.

The Saint Domingue Constitution of 1801. Signed by Toussaint Louverture in July 1801.

Document D- Proclamation, 25 November 1801.

Toussaint Louverture, "Proclamation, 25 November 1801."

Document E - 1801 Rebellion Against Toussaint.

Madison Smartt Bell, Toussaint Louverture: A Biography, 2007

Documents F - The Battle of Samana.

William Wells Brown, "A Description of Toussaint Louverture," from The Black Man, His Antecedents, His Genius, and His Achievements, 2nd edition, 1863. Engraving of Toussaint Louverture, 1802.

Not A Failure But Not A Success

The essential question from the lesson was, “were the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 really a failure as historians have said?” After the congress of Vienna the nationalist and liberals revolted against the government; however not all the revolts were very successful. During an activator in class we were introduced to Alexis de Tocqueville, a liberal French political thinker and historian. He said, “we are sleeping on a volcano. Do you not see that the earth trembles anew? A wind of revolution blows, the storm is on the horizon.” We talked about what this quote meant and concluded it meant that liberals and nationalist are the sleeping volcano, and the conservatives are on top, and the liberals and nationalists are slowly building up to explode into a revolution. After we discussed the metaphor, we split up into groups and our teacher gave us a topic. Each group could have been chosen as a Decembrists revolt, France 1830, France 1848, Frankfort assembly 1848, or 1848 Hungary. We had to find the date, goals, opponent, and outcome about your assigned group that would later help create a survey monkey.

My groups revolution was Decembrists revolt. The Decembrists were liberals and wanted Constantine to rule; however he did not want to so the power went Tsar Alexander. The people hoped Tsar Alexander would make a constitutional monarchy, give Russia a constitution, and end serfdom. Alexander was not a good leader, he abused his power. He treated lower class like they were nothing. He gave Poland a constitution instead of Russia. This enraged many people of Russia, and they began to revolt. Our survey monkey consisted of multiple choice questions and open response. It was fun creating the survey monkey and it allowed me and my fellow classmates to learn more about the Decembrist topic.

There was only one great failure, and that was the Decembrist, the rest of the groups were mostly successful. The Decembrists revolt was a failure because nothing went right. Constantine did not want to take the throne, which left the power to Tsar Alexander. He abused the power and did not abolish surfs or create a constitutional monarchy. France in 1830 was another revolt. Charles X believed in absolutism and the people of French did not like. They set up barricades which causes Charles X to flee to England. The people of France were very happy about this. The historians were correct that none of the revolts were completely successful; however they weren’t all failures.

Giving Up Power

In class, we started a new topic about the Congress of Vienna. The essential question asked ‘what should people in power do when their power is threatened?’ In order to answer the essential question we examined different documents. We learned about the relationship between Klemens von Metternich and Napoleon. As a class we watched a video about the interaction between Metternich and Napoleon, and how Metternich wanted to find a compromise. We then discussed a map that displayed the boundaries in Europe at the time. At the end of class, we had an idea of what great lengths people will go to in order to save their power.

The balance of power was created as an idea of equality, to eliminate threats throughout the five countries, France, Austria, Britain, Prussia, and Russia. The balance of power was an alliance to make sure that at any time no country will become more dominant than the rest. The congress of vienna used the Balance of Power to stop threats of revolutions and wars.The Congress reconstructed the map of Europe, making the five countries have an equal amount of land. This new found balance made it more difficult for any empire to overthrow the rest, keeping peace within the countries. The Congress of Vienna decided to come up with the balance the power because Metternich, and official from Austria, and the surrounding countries all felt threatened by napoleon's conquest. All the leaders from the big powers in Europe felt their power would be threatened by Napoleon, They decided to exile Napoleon and balance the power with one another to prevent any one leader from trying to take over the rest.

I believe that the Congress of Vienna made the right decision in exiling Napoleon. By balancing the power among the countries, it insure that no country will try and take over another. However; I believe people in power should be willing to sacrifice some of their power under certain circumstances. The power should be given to someone who will best provide for that country instead of someone who will take advantage over that power. If  a leader can not help their country then they should give up their power and give it to someone who can.