22843: Burnham: RE: 22837: (Craig) Re: 22829: Slavin: Toussaint Question (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: thor burnham <thorald_mb@hotmail.com>

Ok, I'm glued to my seat and have both of these handy for some reason....

(1) this is from the Journal of Caribbean History vol 20, 1985/86 p. 31

Title:    "Toussaint Louverture and the Slaves of the Breda Plantations"

"Until recently, historians concluded that Toussaint probably enjoyed the
unofficial 'freedom of the savanna' and that he remained living on the
Haut-du-Cap estate, perhaps as a coachman or in some supervisory capacity,
up until the great slave revolt of 1791.
    However, in 1977, Gabriel Debien, Jean Fouchard and Marie-Antoinette
Menier published documents from the French archives which showed that as
early as 1776 Toussaint was in fact a freed man, that he himself owned at
least one slave and that he later rented a small property on the other side
of the plain in the parish of Grande-Riviere." [endnote]

The endnote is as follows: G. Debien, 'M.-A.' Menier, J. Fouchard,
'Toussaint Louverture avant 1789: Lgendes et Realities,' Conjonction, revue
Franco-Haitienne, no.1134(juin-juillet, 1977), 67-80.(my apologies for no
diacritics)

(2) Laurent Dubois' latest : Avengers of the New World (2004) p. 171: "After
two years, when he ended his lease, he owed the owner the cost of two
slaves, one women[sic] and one child, who had died during his tenure."
similar endnote, but also referencing Geggus.

By the way, I attended a conference in Montreal last February and listened
to both Dubois' and Geggus' excellent papers. Geggus was memorable because
he ended his presentatioin on Toussaint by basically stating that he remains
an enigma. This will not please some, as they wish to draw their own
conclusions, but Geggus is firm in his reliance on what the sources allow us
to conclude. The rest, in his mind, is speculation.

best,
Thor Burnham

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