ON THIS DAY ·
Proclamation of Camp Turel
29 Aug 1793 — From his camp in the hills, Toussaint, then fighting for Spain, issues his first proclamation: he wants liberty and equality to reign in Saint-Domingue, and he signs it Louverture.
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The moment in context
Emancipation came to Saint-Domingue as a weapon of war, and that origin shaped what freedom meant. In 1793 Spain recruited the northern insurgent leaders as paid auxiliaries, allied fighters on a salary, while planters in the West and South invited British troops to land at Jérémie and the Môle, hoping to keep slavery. Sonthonax, the civil commissioner holding Le Cap for France, offered freedom to anyone who fought for the Republic and then proclaimed general emancipation in the North on 29 August 1793 with the words “men are born and remain free and equal in rights”. That same day, at Camp Turel, Toussaint, still fighting for Spain, issued his own proclamation: “I want liberty and equality to reign in Saint-Domingue.” On 4 February 1794 the Convention, France’s revolutionary parliament, abolished slavery in all French colonies, the day after seating Jean-Baptiste Belley, a deputy from Saint-Domingue who had himself been enslaved. In May Toussaint joined the Republic that had made freedom its policy.
From Toussaint Louverture, chapter 3 of Two Roads to Independence: Haiti 1789–1838 and Kenya 1895–1978 (1801).
The place: Proclamation of Camp Turel — map and full story →
Teach this in 5 minutes
- Why it happened — Imperial war made freedom a weapon. When France went to war with Spain and Britain in 1793, its commissioners in Saint-Domingue had too few soldiers to hold the colony. The only large…
- The turn — The Constitution of 1801. The constitution adopted on 9 May 1801 and proclaimed in July is the hinge of this chapter because it turned a general into a founder and forced…
- What it changed — Napoleon decides to reconquer. Toussaint’s constitution, his occupation of Santo Domingo and his independent diplomacy convinced Napoleon that the colony must be brought to heel.…
Then ask the room: Was Toussaint Louverture a liberator or a new master? The argued answer is on the chapter page →
The atlas that shows it
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