Louverture turned metropolitan violence back into an argument for racial equality

Evidence

Louverture conceded that there had been “terrible crimes” committed by ex-slaves in Saint-Domingue. But, he insisted, the violence in the colony had been no greater than that in metropolitan France. Indeed, if the blacks of Saint-Domingue were as “ignorant” and “gross” as Vaublanc proclaimed, they should be excused for their actions. Could the same be said of the numerous Frenchmen who, despite “the advantages of education and civilization,” had committed horrific crimes during the Revolution? “If, because some blacks have committed cruelties, it can be deduced that all blacks are cruel, then it would be right to accuse of barbarity the European French and all the nations of the world.” And if the treason and errors of some in Saint-Domingue justified a return to the old order there, then was not the same true in France? Would not it be justified to claim, on the basis of the violence of the Revolution, that the French were “unworthy of liberty” and “made only for slavery” and that they should be once more put under the rule of kings? How, he further insisted, could Vaublanc gloss over “the outrages committed in cold blood by civilized men like himself” who had allowed “the lure of gold to suppress the cry of their conscience”? “Will the crimes of powerful men always be glorified?” “Less enlightened than citizen Vaublanc,” Louverture concluded, “we know, nevertheless, that whatever their color, only one distinction must exist between men, that between good and evil. When blacks, men of color, and whites are under the same laws, they must be equally protected, and they must be equally repressed when they deviate from them.” — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 729

Categorization

• QUESTION: Louverture equates colonial ex-slave violence with French Revolutionary violence and uses the comparison as a liberty defense — a striking inversion. Worth noting how unusual this rhetorical move was compared to other colonial leaders of the era.
• DEFINE: The passage defining Louverture’s principled universalism — one distinction only, between good and evil — is a concise statement of his ideological position.