Jefferson treated the Haitian revolution as a contagious disease to contain

Evidence

Pulling back from Adams’ outright support for Louverture after his election in 1800, Thomas Jefferson would ultimately move toward a policy of containment. With his eyes on Louisiana, he was clearly interested in limiting French power in the area, but he was also concerned about limiting the impact of the revolution on North America. In a conversation with a French ambassador in Washington in 1801, Jefferson wondered whether it would be possible to declare the island independent but keep it “under the protection” of France, the United States, and Britain. The three powers, he noted, could work together to “confine this disease to its island.” — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 784

Categorization

• XREF: Jefferson’s fear of contagion and ‘confining the disease to its island’ connects to the longer arc of how slaveholding powers in the US responded to Haiti, including the later embargo and Louisiana Purchase context.
• QUESTION: Jefferson proposed independence under joint Franco-Anglo-American protection — worth tracing how this tri-power scheme compares with what actually happened and why Leclerc’s invasion followed instead.