26272: Corbett: (book review) Gordon Brown: TOUSSAINT'S CLAUSE: THE FOUNDING FATHERS AND THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION.

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

> From Bob Corbett

Folks,

I read this incredible book back in June and wrote MOST of the review 
below at that time.

Howeve, I live in St. Louis (part of what was the Louisiana Territory).
In 1798 St. Louisan, Charles Gratiot was given a "league square" of 
land to develop in the outskirts of St. Louis.  This famous "Gratiot 
League Square" is today in the heart of St. Louis and the center of it is 
my neighborhood where both my father and I were born, Dogtown.

Gratiot held it as land for gentlemen farmers until Dec. 9, 1852 when the 
Pacific Railroad laid the first track west of the Mississippi, the 4 miles 
out to "Cheltenham" the name of our neighborhood at the time.  The 
railroad made it possible to exploit the rich clay in the area and within 
a couple of years many clay mines were operating and there were 13 brick 
factories within a couple blocks of my current home (the Corbett family 
home -- my family moved here in 1915.)

So, I developed a lecture as a spin off of Brown's thesis to show how from 
Gratiot's SPANISH land grant of 1798, though Napoleon's gaining back 
Louisiana (1802) and planning to use Louisiana as a feeding ground for the 
slaves in San Domingue, to Napoleon's "dumping" this land worthless, 
now to him in 1803 on Jefferson as the Louisiana Purchase.

Just 49 years later, my neighborhood was founded, and flocks of Irish 
immigrants (among others) came here for the jobs in clay mining and 
brick making and our neighborhood was founded.

Now, 156 years later there are no signs of the brick factories and not one 
single mine shaft of the 27 mines is available today (though I have a lead 
on one....).  So, I'm giving a lecture tomorrown night to show how the 
Haitian vicory over Napoleonoic forces made the development of our 
neighbhorhood here in St. Louis possible.  See below for URLs of:

1.  My review of Gordon Brown's simply wonderful book.

http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/personal/reading/brown-toussaint.html

and:  2.  The early essay I wrote in 1991 about how Napoleon's defeat 
"gave" the gift of Louisiana to the United states.  See:

http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/history/revolution/revolution4.htm

Finally, see: the url below for the info on my lecture of tomorrow night:

http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/dogtown/events/9-18-05-haiti.html

Bob Corbett