United States Politics, Policies, and Fear Impact the New Country of Ayiti

President Thomas Jefferson and successive presidents Madison and Monroe were of the slave-holding class

When John Adams narrowly lost the 1800 presidential election to Thomas Jefferson, the entire paradigm of relations with the colony of Saint Domingue, the precursor to Ayiti (Haiti), changed overnight. There was a mutually beneficial trade relationship in place since 1798 through a special clause voted by the U.S. Congress called “Toussaint’s Clause” that allowed U.S. merchant vessels the ability to trade with the colony. Trade with all French colonies had been restricted due to the U.S. and France’s undeclared Quasi-War.

However, in Toussaint’s brilliance, he offered Adams a clever carrot to

John Adams and Toussaint Louverture’s diplomacy and cooperation led to expanded trade

introduce the agreement to the senate; Toussaint would help curb the devastating blows that French privateers (pirates) were wreaking on American trading vessels. Over 300 ships had either been sunk or stolen by the French pirates with the full backing of the French government.

Sailors from the free Caribbean island of Ayiti would inspire freedom in U.S. slaves

By the time Jefferson got elected, over a thousand vessels were plying the waters filled with imports and exports between the island and American ports.

This worried the southern planter class immensely. Imagine a bunch of freed slaves, now sailors, arriving in the ports of Savannah Georgia, Charleston, South Carolina, and others, with money in their pockets and spreading the news to U.S. Slaves that south of here was a land where it was illegal to possess slaves? Worried as these white slave-holding planters were, as well as Jefferson and his secretary of state at the time, James Madison, they did everything in their power to limit any

One of the ships that would ply the waters of Saint Domingue was the USS Constitution, Old Ironsides

importation of a slave movement to their southern shores of the United States.

So, Jefferson and Madison recalled their navy, and most diplomats, and attempted to reduce the amount of trade between Saint Domingue and the states. But as the true capitalists they were, the merchant vessel owners continued the lucrative trade until eventually France invaded the colony to recapture it, and arrested, jailed, and murdered Toussaint Louverture. The Jefferson administration supported the French towards their goal of re-establishing slavery in the colony.

Defeat of the French Army in 1803

When Dessalines defeated the French army in 1803 and declared Ayiti independent, he had already written a kind letter to Jefferson, with the return of a captured merchant vessel as goodwill, the previous year in an attempt to open diplomatic channels. But Jefferson would have nothing of it and never gave Dessalines the courtesy of a reply or thank you for the ship. By the time of Dessalines death, Jefferson had embargoed the new country of Ayiti in 1806, crippling the nation, specifically in the Southern Republic ruled by Petion.

Jefferson's embargo on Haiti was intended to isolate the new nation and prevent the spread of the Haitian revolution to the United States. He feared that recognizing Haiti's independence would inspire slave insurrections in the American South. 

The embargo proved difficult to enforce as U.S. Merchant ship owners grew

In Book Four, you’ll be in the offices of Jefferson, Napoleon, and more

rich through trade and would deal in contraband. Trade restrictions were eventually rolled back entirely by Macon's Bill No. 2 in 1810. However, the two presidents who succeeded Jefferson; Madison, and Monroe, would continue the policy of isolating Ayiti (Haiti) in fear that the country would inspire U.S. slaves to revolt, which it did, but no U.S. slave revolts were ever successful. The United States did not recognize Haiti's independence until 1862. 

Book Four - The Clash of Pétion and Christophe - opens on New Year's Day of 1804, in three different cities - Cap Français, Gonaïves, and Port Républicain - where our main characters and principal protagonists begin to navigate their way through the aftermath of liberation, not knowing that their paths would soon cross at dangerous intersections. As they strive to establish stability and peace in their homeland, they will soon realize that this may be even more challenging than fighting for their freedom.