au-Prince, secretly assembled on the plantation of Louise Rabuteau,[1] decided on their military organization (August 21). Beauvais[2] was appointed leader of the insurrection; and it was resolved that the uprising should take place on the 26th of August.
There were already symptoms of an alarmingly dangerous nature affecting the domination of the colonists; the slaves who, up to that time, had been seemingly obedient and resigned, began to show signs of their intention of shaking off the yoke. In June and July insurrections took place at Cul-de-Sac,[3] at Vases,[4] and at Mont-Rouis.[5] The whites had recourse to their usual methods: they tried to intimidate the rebels by inflicting horrible punishments on them. Men were quartered alive; and so great a number was hanged that it was sometimes difficult to find enough executioner.[6]
At that time there appeared before the public a man who was to shape the destinies of his race and have a great influence on the future of Saint-Domingue. Toussaint-Bréda, better known under the name of Louverture, acting in connivance with the followers of the Governor of the island, prepared a general uprising of the slaves. Clever and perspicacious, he assumed at the outset a very modest part. He did not endeavor to obtain the command; his friend Jean-François was proclaimed the leader; Biassou was next in command; to Boukmann and Jeannot had been intrusted the mission of giving the signal of rebellion. This matter settled, there remained but to find a way of influencing all the slaves. These were told that the King of France and the National Assembly had granted them three holidays a week and had abolished flogging as a means of punishment; but that the colonists refused to obey the
