Great House@xspotsdamark
During the Haitian Revolution, the French Jacobin revolutionary Leger-Felicité Sonthonax was expelled from Haiti by Toussaint Louveture for being too radical & extreme
-He was initially sent to Haiti, along with 7000 troops, by the French Revolutionary government to protect French property & help defend the colony from British & Spanish incursion.
-He joined the Haitian revolutionaries in their fight against French settlers & slave holders, whom he considered French Bourgeoisie.
-He openly espoused Atheist ideas & began promoting Atheism to the Black population. The Haitian Revolutionary leaders, who were staunchly catholic, didn’t really appreciate that
-He advocated for the abolition of race on the Island through interracial unions.
- He began calling for the destruction of plantations in Haiti, the expropriation & redistribution of the wealth & property of all French settlers, but the Haitian revolutionary leaders believed they needed the plantations & wealth to build a functioning economy & stable society after independence.
His radical ideas & tactics were usually at odds with the more pragmatic approach of the Haitian Revolutionary leaders. Toussaint Louverture appointed him as Haiti’s representative to the French Revolutionary Convention & placed him under armed guard on a ship back to France
Ironically, after Toussaint Louveture was arrested & slavery was reinstated by Napoleon, Toussaint’s successor, Jean Jacques Dessalines, burnt down all the plantations, expelled all the French settlers, abolished “Whiteness” in Haiti & declared everyone Black