Louverture won broad loyalty across races by rebuilding the plantation economy

Evidence

In November 1794, when Laveaux went to visit the lands under Louverture’s command, he was delighted to see that reconstruction of the plantation economy was under way. “All the inhabitants,” he wrote, “especially the whites,” never tired of “honoring the virtues of Toussaint.” He helped those of all “colors” and “opinions.” Many white planters had returned to their plantations, and many white women talked about the assistance they had received from this “surprising man.” In Petite-Rivière, 15,000 cultivators had come home. They were, Laveaux gushed, grateful to the Republic that had made them free, and worked assiduously thanks to Louverture. “Whites, blacks, mulattoes, soldiers, cultivators, property owners, all bless the virtuous chief whose care maintains order and peace among them.” — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 648

Categorization

• XREF: Foreshadows Louverture’s later reputation-building diplomacy with whites, relevant to the reader’s interest in his arc as remembered by contemporaries.