Toussaint's clause : the founding fathers and the Haitian revolution / Gordon S. Brown.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brown, Gordon S., 1936-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States--Foreign relations--1789-1809.

United States.

International relations.

Toussaint Louverture, 1743-1803.

Toussaint Louverture.

United States--Foreign relations--Haiti.

Haiti.

Haiti--Foreign relations--United States.

Haiti--History--Revolution, 1791-1804.

History.

Physical Description:

xi, 321 pages : maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, [2005]

Summary:

In Its Formative Years, America, birthplace of a revolution, wrestled with a volatile dilemma. John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and the other founding fathers faced a defining problem. What should be the new republic's strategy toward the revolution roiling in Haiti, just off America's shores?

America's response to turmoil in Haiti was complicated by contentious positions the founding fathers held on the global struggle raging between Britain and France. The issue rapidly became a flashpoint in the increasingly partisan and fierce American political scene. When the anti-French colonial revolt in Haiti turned into a slave rebellion led by the incomparable Toussaint L'Ouverture, the debate grew still more heated, between those who saw opportunity in the revolt and those who feared the spread of French egalitarianism.

Toussaint's Clause: The Founding Fathers and the Haitian Revolution narrates the intricate history of one of America's early foreign policy balancing acts. Supporters of Toussaint's rebellion at first engineered a bold policy of intervention in favor of the rebels. But Southern slaveholders eyed the revolution with fear and eventually obtained a reversal of the policy-even while taking advantage of the rebellion to make the fateful Louisiana Purchase.

At stake was not only influence and trade with the fabulously rich sugar colony, but America's effort to maintain its profitable neutrality between the warring European powers. A misstep could have plunged the new and weak republic into the maelstrom of the global struggle. Gordon S. Brown details the debates and the diplomacy of this crisis over Haiti and the sometimes rancorous struggle between America's early leaders, which often cut to the core of what America meant by revolution and liberty.

Contents:

July 1790

St. Domingue

White cockade, red cockade

The cost of neutrality

Trouble with Britain

Trouble with France

Toussaint's clause

Creating a quarantine

The St. Domingo station

Jefferson equivocates

The Leclerc expedition

St. Domingo and Louisiana

A risky trade

The clearance act debate

The trade suspended

Embargo and neglect

Epilogue.

Notes:

"An ADST-DACOR diplomats and diplomacy book."

Includes bibliographical references (pages 310-315) and index.

ISBN:

1578067111

OCLC:

55124492