Rebelles with a Cause: Women in the Haitian War of Independence, 1802–04

Abstract

In December 1801, one of the largest fleets that France ever assembled gathered in Brest, Cherbourg, Le Havre, Flessingue, Rochefort, Toulon and Cadiz. Napoléon Bonaparte, First Consul of France, had instructed General Victoire Leclerc to sail to SaintDomingue (Haiti), France's most valuable colony in the Caribbean, and wrest it away from Toussaint Louverture, who had governed Saint-Domingue quasi-independently for the past three years. The mission was not an easy one, as black officers and soldiers were expected to fight any white army suspected of restoring slavery. Altogether, 43,830 soldiers (not including sailors and local militia) would sail for Saint-Domingue over the next eighteen months. 1 Few would return alive.Ships-of-the-line, generals and soldiers: one might expect such martial terms to apply to a male-only world. Yet, Napoleonic-era armies carried with them a substantial contingent of wives, cooks and prostitutes, and numerous women and children could be found on the overcrowded decks of the French men-o'-war. 2 Many officers had brought their families on board, along with valets and maids. 3 Some soldiers also brought their wives, who were entitled to an extra food ration at the army's expense. 4 Exiled planters, anxious to return to their estates after ten years of revolutionary upheaval, sneaked on the military vessels to cross the Atlantic free of charge. The captain of a later troop transport even brought his pregnant wife with him, though she died in labour during a frightful storm. 5 Official documents list between 641 and 688 civilians in the Brest squadron alone. Of these, 103 were wives; 59 were children; another 214 were servants and individuals of undetermined sex. 6 The actual numbers were probably higher, since many opportunists trying to join the expected gold -or rather sugar -rush travelled illicitly. Shortly after leaving Brest, the captain of the 74-gun Patriote found two young stowaways, one of whom, on closer inspection, turned out to be a woman who had sneaked on board disguised in sailor slops to follow her lover bound for Women were equally present in Paris, where French authorities rushed through last-minute preparations. Unsure about the expedition, Leclerc requested to stay in France so that he could look after his sister Aimée. Bonaparte did not object to Leclerc's argument that a woman could not live without male supervision; but he cleverly ordered that another man be in charge. 'Tomorrow, your sister will be married. I don't know yet who the husband will be, but she will be married'. 8 Pauline Bonaparte, triply famous C

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