15034: Toussaint Louverture and the United States (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Gerard & Nancy <gernancy@hotmail.com>

                                 TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE

                         AND THE DESTINY OF THE UNITED STATES


Referring to Toussaint Louverture and the destiny of the United States,
historian Henry Adams, great-grandson and grandson of American
Presidents, wrote:

      "... he [Toussaint] held their  future in his hands.  If he and
      his Blacks should succumb easily to their fate, the wave of
      French empire would roll on to Louisiana and sweep far up
      the Mississippi;  if Santo Domingo should resist and succeed
      in resistance, the recoil would spend its force on Europe
      while America would be left to pursue its democratic destiny
      in peace".

Face to the success of the Haitian Revolution, the greatest ever among all
liberation struggles in the history of humanity, Napoleon had no choice but to
abandon his plans for the consolidation of his power in Louisiana and the
invasion of the United States.  Thanks to Toussaint Louverture  "America [was]
left to pursue its democratic destiny in peace". The acquisition of
Louisiana's  825,000 square miles, more than doubled the territory of the
country, accounting for what are parts or the entirety of the States
of Arkansas, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana,
Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wyoming.  In addition it
opened the Western frontiers.

Thirteen States and the conquest of the West! Toussaint is the real hero of the
Louisiana Purchase!  In this year 2003, when we commemorate the 200th
anniversary of the death of the Greatest Emancipator of all times, "the
greatest man of the millennium just past", would it not be justice if Toussaint
Louverture, who has added so many stars to the Star-Spangled Banner were to be
recognized, at least symbolically, as one of the Founding Fathers of the United
States of America?

Gerard Alphonse Ferere, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Saint Joseph's University


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