Source: Hubert Cole. Christophe: King of Haiti. New York. The Viking Press, 1967. George F. Tyson, ed. Toussaint L'Ouverture. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1973.

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French Generals in the  Saint-Domingue Field 

Toussaint L'Ouverture, François Dominique, c.1744–1803, Haitian patriot and martyr. A self-educated slave freed shortly before the uprising in 1791, he joined the black rebellion to liberate the slaves and became its organizational genius. Rapidly rising in power, Toussaint joined forces for a brief period in 1793 with the Spanish of Santo Domingo and in a series of fast-moving campaigns became known as L'Ouverture [the opening], a name he adopted. Although he professed allegiance to France, first to the republic and then to Napoleon, he was singleheartedly devoted to the cause of his own people and advocated it in his talks with French commissioners. 

Late in 1793 the British occupied all of Haiti's coastal cities and allied themselves with the Spanish in the eastern part of the island. Toussaint was the acknowledged leader against them and, with the generals Dessalines and Christophe, recaptured (1798) several towns from the British and secured their complete withdrawal. In 1799 the mulatto general André Rigaud enlisted the aid of Alexandre Pétion and Jean Pierre Boyer, asserted mulatto supremacy, and launched a revolt against Toussaint; the uprising was quelled when Pétion lost the southern port of Jacmel. 

In 1801, Toussaint conquered Santo Domingo, which had been ceded by Spain to France in 1795, and thus he governed the whole island. By then professing only nominal allegiance to France, he reorganized the government and instituted public improvements. Napoleon sent (1802) a large force under General Leclerc to subdue Toussaint, who had become a major obstacle to French colonial ambitions in the Western Hemisphere; the Haitians, however, offered stubborn resistance, and a peace treaty was drawn. Toussaint himself was treacherously seized and sent to France, where he died in a dungeon at Fort-de-Joux, in the French Jura. His valiant life and tragic death made him a symbol of the fight for liberty, and he is celebrated in one of Wordsworth's finest sonnets and in a dramatic poem by Lamartine. 

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Rigaud, André, 1761–1811, Haitian mulatto general in the wars that liberated Haiti. Educated, but vain, he believed in the superiority of mulattoes. He sought (1798–1800) unsuccessfully to wrest the leadership from Toussaint L'Ouverture. In 1802 he went to France, returned with General Leclerc, and was sent back again as a prisoner. In 1810, once again on Haitian soil, he tried to overthrow Alexandre Pétion in the south. Defeated, he died, presumably by starving himself to death.

Pétion, Alexandre, 1770–1818, Haitian revolutionist. After taking part in the expulsion (1798) of the English from Haiti, he joined (1799) André Rigaud against Toussaint L'Ouverture and commanded the heroic but tragic defense of Jacmel, a southern port. Exiled, he returned with the French army under Leclerc in 1802. Rejoining the patriots because he feared the reestablishment of slavery, Pétion, after the death of Dessalines, engaged in a fierce but inconclusive struggle with Henri Christophe for control of Haiti. In 1807 he was chosen president for life of the republic in S Haiti. He confiscated the great French plantations, divided the land among the peasants, and gave his people unprecedented freedom. In 1816 he welcomed the exiled Spanish American revolutionist Simón Bolívar and provided him with military assistance. Nevertheless, his administration was tainted with waste and corruption. Pétion was succeeded by Jean Pierre Boyer

Christophe, Henri, 1767–1820, Haitian revolutionary leader. A freed black slave, he aided Toussaint L'Ouverture in the liberation of Haiti and was army chief under Dessalines. When the latter declared himself emperor, Christophe took part (1806) in a successful plot against his life and was elected president of the republic. Christophe, a pure-blooded black, then waged a savage and inconclusive struggle with Alexandre Pétion, the champion of mulatto supremacy, who retained control of S Haiti. In 1811, entrenching himself in N Haiti, Christophe declared himself king as Henri I and entered upon an energetic but tyrannical reign. He created an autocracy patterned after the absolute monarchies of Europe. Compulsory labor enriched his fiefdom. Christophe surrounded himself with lavish, and sometimes ludicrous, magnificence; the pomp and splendor of his reign are still shown by the ruins of the citadel of La Ferrière, a formidable fortress on top of a mountain, surrounded by precipitous cliffs, and of the fabulous palace of Sans Souci, at Cap Haïtien, his capital. In 1820, when he was suffering from partial paralysis, revolts broke out. In despair, Christophe committed suicide.

Boyer, Jean Pierre, 1776–1850, president of Haiti (1818–43). A free mulatto, he fought under Toussaint L'Ouverture and then joined André Rigaud, also a mulatto, in the latter's abortive insurrection against Toussaint. He returned in 1802 with the French army of Charles Leclerc but later joined the patriots under Alexandre Pétion, who chose him as his successor. He united N and S Haiti after the suicide of Henri Christophe (1820), and in 1822, taking advantage of the weakness of Spanish Santo Domingo, he took control of the whole island. Compulsory labor was instituted. In 1825 a French fleet forced Boyer to pay an exorbitant indemnity in return for French losses; France then recognized Haitian independence. Financial embarrassment, combined with the labor policy and the devastation of an earthquake in 1843, brought about Boyer's overthrow and permanent exile.

Leclerc, Charles Victor Emmanuel, 1772–1802, French general. He served under Napoleon Bonaparte in the Italian campaign, married (1797) Pauline Bonaparte, and took part in Napoleon's coup of 18 Brumaire (1799). In 1801 he commanded the French expedition to Portugal. He then headed the force sent to subdue Haiti, where François Dominique Toussaint L'Ouverture had established a virtually autonomous state. The French won several victories after severe fighting, and an agreement was reached. This was broken by Leclerc, who, acting on Napoleon's secret instructions, had Toussaint seized by trickery and deported to France. The natives, led by Jean Jacques Dessalines and Henri Christophe, rose in revolt and expelled the French, who were weakened by an epidemic of yellow fever. Leclerc died of the fever.

Sources: See C. L. R. James, The Black Jacobins (1938,2d ed. 1963); C. Moran, Black Triumvirate: A Study of L'Ouverture, Dessalines, Christophe (1957); A. M. Schlesinger, Jr., ed., Toussaint L'Ouverture: Haitian Liberator (1989).