Toussaint Louverture, Revolutionary Haitian General, Writes Future King, Henri Christophe, During the Haitian Revolution.
Dated the 23rd of Brumaire [November 14, 1798] in the seventh year of the French Revolution, this signed letter between two great revolutionary leaders is doubly scarce in being penned entirely by Toussaint. Written in French, he refers to the release of a citizen in Chistophe’s once elegant capital-city district of Le Cap (Cap-Haitien), in the North, and asks the General to inquire into the situation and let the man return to his plantation if the reasons for his arrest were not serious.
Young and uneducated, Henri Christophe (1767-1820) had come to Haiti as a stowaway from Grenada. By age 14, he was the slave of a French officer who took him to Georgia for the American Revolution, joining 700 French led, West Indies volunteers for the Battle of Savannah, in October 1779. Though only a drummer, and their assault on the British-held port had been a disaster, the military skills Christophe acquired would prove invaluable to Louverture. In the end, Christophe would betray Louverture to the French and turn Haiti into a monarchy led by himself.
At left, is a fanciful, hand-colored representation of Toussaint Louverture, circa 1800, possibly clipped from a German book. In order to avoid capture or assassination, there is no verifiable likeness or accurate physical description of him.