Armée Indigène

In the late 18th century and early 19th century, the French colony of Saint-Domingue, later established as Haiti post-revolution, was founded on the western half of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean. An agriculturally potent landmass, France regarded the colony as a highly valuable asset and the shining star of its imperial crown, producing most of the world's sugar and coffee by the 1780s.[1] A forced labor plantation economy, historians note that the chattel slavery established within the colony was brutal, with torture being commonplace.[3] Disease, such as yellow fever, was epidemically prevalent, contributing to the high slave mortality rate. In efforts to save money, some plantation owners hastened the death of sickly slaves through intentional starvation, aware that replacements would be shipped to the colony.[2][4] Enforced by the Code Noir, these cruel living conditions led the slaves to conspire to revolt, eventually forming the Armée Indigène. Enveloped in inhumane treatment, many slaves found solace in Vodou,[1][5] though always in a conciliatory fashion, as the practice was explicitly banned by plantation owners.

Despite their free status, the gens de couleur were unprotected from discrimination. Petits blancs (poor whites) resented the gens de couleur because of their wealth and power, gained by the ability to buy other slaves. In 1789, The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen gave hope to the gens de couleur that France would look at every citizen equally, regardless of position or race, giving them better living conditions and rights.[6] However, the vague interpretation of the Declaration would leave the gens de couleur's social position unchanged. In fact, the grand blancs would take advantage of the Declaration and use it to gain independence from trade regulations. In addition, slavery was not officially abolished. Since the 1780s, free men of color such as Julien Raimond and Vincent Oge had tried to get free people of color the rights that belonged to them by representing the colonies in the National Assembly. One of these rights was the right to vote; however, free people of color were still denied of this right.

With 300 armed gens de couleur and affranchis, Vincent Oge led an insurrection, which attempted to disarm the white men of Grande-Rivière.[7][8] Taking place on 29 October 1790, this event became known as the Oge Rebellion, and ended in failure. Oge and his rebels were executed on the wheel, and his barbaric death would cause even more tension amongst the free people of color and eventually the enslaved, who already had the mindset of revolution.[7][8]

By the end of the 18th century, a century after the Treaty of Ryswick the social tension in St-Domingue have reach a level enough, and the different maniel or doco (independent maroon communities) have gained a level of organization all around the island to start a revolution.

• Plaine-du-Nord, in the Grand-Nord region, Dutty Boukman, and Cecile Fatiman commanded thousand of maroon and rebel slave to ravage the crops;
• Plaine du-Cul-de-Sac, in the West region, Sanglaou;
• Plaine de Léoganes and Jacmel, in West region, Romaine-la-Prophétesse
• Plaine des Cayes, in the Tiburon Peninsula region, the Macaya-Marrons attacked the city of Les Cayes for closed to a year.
• Massif the Baoruco (Massif de la Selle and Sierra the Baoruco), Lamour Dérance, a maroon hostile to both Toussaint Louverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines.

In 1803 the marrons leaders Sansousi and Lamour Dérance and troops were formally incorporated in the Armée Indigène.

The first mass rebellion broke out in August 1791, when religious Vodoun priest ougan-sanba Dutty Boukman ordered the slaves to attack Bois Caïman. While they were seeking their rights as Frenchmen, the slaves also engaged in acts of cruelty, such as rape, poison, and murder against the white plantation owners. In a couple of weeks, the number of slaves participating in the rebellion was over 100,000. By 1792, a third of Saint-Domingue was under the control of the rebels, and France was ready to quell the rebellion.[9]

The maroons of Haiti military style and role in the indigenous army are similar to the Mountain Troops of France and the Swiss army. However, an underlying issue existed between the maroon troops and the creole troops relating to the respect of command. The maroon also called Congo troops did not organize their troops based on established corps such as infantry, cavalry, or artillery but based on ethnic groups. Some of the most famous groups are the:

• Dawonmen from the Dahomey and Allada kingdoms are known for their commanding and strategic skills. Toussaint Louverture's father Gaou Ginou was an Allada prince
• Nago from the Yoruba kingdom in Nigeria are known for their tenacity
• Ibo from the Igbo people of Nigeria are known for their tenacity and pride
• Bizango from the Bissagos Islands and Guinea-Bissau are known for their tenacity
• Congo from the Kongo kingdom are known for their knowledge of natural remedies

Battle of Vertières in 1803

While the blacks are fighting for the end of slavery the mulattos was asking France to recognize them as full citizen and give them the right to participate in the colony's political life. The wealthy gens de couleur were given citizenship in May 1791, which caused tension between them and the grands blancs, and as a result, fighting broke out between the two groups. Because of this, the poorer gens de couleur, like the slaves, were also resentful of grands blancs, who were in the way of what was the beginning of equality for everyone in Saint-Domingue. They gave political rights to the gen de couleur, and sent Léger-Félicité Sonthonax to Saint-Domingue as its new governor; he was a man against slavery and the plantation owners. Many gens-de-couleur gained military experience within the Chasseurs-Volontaires de St-Domingue by participating in the Savannah Battle alongside the Americans against the British, this situation would help in the War of Knives when the British Navy would block the supply of the French troops in favor of Toussaint's Army. The period reach its height when the mulatto commander like Pétion, Beauvais, Pinchinnat, and more gained the battle of Pernier.

For the accomplishment of these civil rights, a corps of fewer than 300 men, 197 blacks and 23 mulattoes known as the Swiss was promised freedom at the end. Unfortunately, they were captured and brought to Jamaica, near Port-Royal to be sold where they refused to buy them. They were then brought to Mole St-Nicolas and executed by whites from l'Artibonite known as Saliniers.

While all of this was happening, Toussaint Louverture was training his own army in the ways of guerilla warfare, and helping the Spanish, who declared war against France in 1793; various outside powers assisted the Haitian insurgents during the early years of the revolution in hopes that they could take over Saint-Domingue from the French amidst the confusion of the French Revolutionary Wars. Louverture, alongside Dessalines and his army, would go back to the French in 1794, a while after France abolished slavery in the colonies.[7][10]

By 1798, Toussaint and Rigaud had jointly contained both external and internal threats to the colony. In April 1798, British commander Thomas Maitland approached Toussaint to negotiate a British withdrawal, which was concluded in August.[5] In early 1799, Toussaint also independently negotiated "Toussaint's Clause" with the United States government, allowing American merchants to trade with Saint-Domingue despite the ongoing Quasi-War between the U.S. and France.

In July 1798, Toussaint and Rigaud traveled in a carriage together from Port-au-Prince to Le Cap to meet the recently arrived representative Théodore-Joseph d'Hédouville, sent by France's new Directory regime. Oral tradition asserts that during this carriage ride, Toussaint and Rigaud made a pact to collaborate against Hédouville's meddling. However, those efforts soon came undone, as Hédouville intentionally treated Rigaud with more favor than Toussaint, in an effort to sow tension between the two leaders. In a letter to Rigaud, Hédouville criticized "the perfidy of General Toussaint Louverture" and absolved Rigaud of Toussaint's authority as general-in-chief. He invited Rigaud to "take command of the Department of the South".[9] Hédouville eventually fled Saint-Domingue, sailing from Le Cap in October 1798 due to threats by Toussaint resulting in a year fight between the two generals.

Following his victory over Rigaud, Toussaint declared a general amnesty in July 1800. But Toussaint's general Jean-Jacques Dessalines became infamous during this period for carrying out brutal reprisals and massacres against Rigaud's supporters. Some historians have asserted that Toussaint himself ordered massacres, but delegated the killing to his generals to avoid culpability.[19] Many of Rigaud's generals were exiled to France and some to Cuba.

Later, Louverture would establish a Haitian constitution the Constitution of 1805 being the first constitution to abolish slavery and declared himself governor for life.

Napoleon Bonaparte did not accept this claim, and sent a troop of more than 30 000 men under the leadership of his brother-in-law Charles-Victor Emmanuel Leclerc. When the troops arrived in St-Domingue many Haitian generals refused to give access to the French navy to disembark and famously Henry Christophe rather burned the city on their commandment than betray Toussaint. After the Battle of Crête-à-Pierrot in Petite-Rivière de L'Artibonite, the French realized they can not win against Louverture on the battlefield and decided to use a ruse to capture him. They invited him to a meeting in Gonaives, where he was captured and put on a boat Creole to Cap-Francais et another boat le Héros to Brest in Francelocked up Louverture, where he would die in Fort de Joux.[7][10]

After the Haitians discover the secret plan of the French was to reinstate slavery and killed all males over the age of 14 both the old Toussaint's troops and Rigaud's troops. This is the last step toward the Independence of Hayti but many obstacles were on the way to glory, notably the disorganization of the Haitian troops. In 1802 Pétions left the French side and meet J-J Dessalines in Plaisance to convince him to lead the Armée Indigène. After that Dessalines traveled all over the North to organize the troops of Clerveaux, Christophe, and Cappois. From May 14 to May 18, 1803, he then went to Arcahaie to organize the troops of the West with Gabart, Vernet, Pétion, Magloire Ambroise , and Cangé. Finally, on July 5, 1803, he was in Camp-Gérard outside of the city of Les Cayes to organize the troops in the South under the leadership of Nicolas Geffrard, Laurent Férou, Étienne Gérin.

Thus the Indigène Army is formed from the union of the Chasseurs-Volontaires de St-Domingue, the Legion of Equality of the South, Armée Coloniale of Toussaint Louverture, and some Maroon's followers of Lamour Dérance and Sansousi.

These series of meetings culminated in the renaming of the army, Armée Indigène, and the basis of the Haitian flag. Saint-Domingue's flag changed to a red and blue flag with the slogan “Liberte a la Mort” (Liberty or Death) in white lettering.[2] Bonaparte would try to reestablish the slave regime by sending general Charles Leclerc to Saint-Domingue, but were decisively defeated by the military superiority of the Armée Indigène, though racist historians unwilling to accept this stunning fact claimed it was because of an outbreak of yellow fever.[5] Because of this, the Armée Indigène was now known as the army that freed Saint-Domingue.

Following the French and British model at that time, the Armée Indigène followed a regimental system.

When marching for the campaign the troops are usually organized as such: the Chasseurs are in front scouting, followed by the Grenadiers or artillery troops in case of marching against a fort. the Carabiniers which form most of the army are the infantry troops and lastly the Dragoons which are the cavalry troops.

Some famous regiments are:

• 3rd half-brigade under the leadership of Lamartinière, the hero of Crête-à-Pierrot, based in Port-Républicain;
• 4th half-brigade under the leadership of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the commander-chief, based in St-Marc;
• 9th half-brigade under the leadership of Francois Cappois Lamort, the hero of Vertières, based in Port-de-Paix;
• Dragoons of l'Artibonite under the leadership of Charlotin Marcadieu;
• The Guard of Honor of Toussaint Louverture is composed of 2000 men, including 400 mounted men and music bands.

Later on, the number of half-brigades went from 29 to 38, with 4 artillery regiments, 86 detached artillery companies, and 64 gendarmerie companies.

After the troops, regiment, brigade, and demi-brigade have been organized by JJD the troops could now focus and conquering Hayti back from the French.

• André Vernet, Gabart and Dessalines controlled the Artibonite and use it as the base for the operations;
• January 16, 1803, Nicolas Geffrad Sr. and Étienne Gérin with the 13th freed the city of Anse-à-Veau, thus freeing the department of Nippes against the French general Bernard;
• April 12, 1803, Francois Lamort Cappois conquered the city of Port-de-Paix and the island of Tortuga, thus cutting all French supply between Cap-Francais and Mole-St-Nicolas and freeing the department of Haut-Nord-Ouest (department) aiganst the French generals Clauzel and Boscus;
• Larose freed the city of Arcahaie with the 8th, thus freeing the region of Haut-Ouest;
• May 18, 1803, Congress of Arcahaie with Pétion, Gabart, Vernet, Cangé, Larose, and Dessalines on galvanizing the troops of Artibonite and West and vote on the Haitian flag.
• June 30, 1803, Louis Gabart and Dessalines with the 4th, 7th, 20th and 10th freed the city of Mirebalais, thus freeing the department of Centre;
• July 5, 1803, Congress of Camp-Gérrard with Geffrard, Férou, Gérin, Boisrond Tonerre, and Dessalines on galvanizing the troops of Tiburon Peninsula.
• August 4, 1803, Laurent Férou marched toward Jérémie from Cayes through Tiburon with the 18th. One column led by Bazile walked to the city through Marfranc and Férou continued through Abricot thus freeing the department of Grand'Anse;
• September 4, 1803, Louis Gabart and Dessalines conquered the city of St-Marc, thus freeing the department of Bas-Artibonite aiganst the French generals Hénin;
• September 9, 1803, Toussaint Brave and Auguste Clerveaux with 1st, 6th conquered the city of Fort-Liberté, thus freeing the department of North-East against the French general Pamphile de laCroix;
• September 17, 1803, Magloire Ambroise and Cangé with the 21st, 22nd, 23rd conquered the city of Jacmel, thus freeing the department of North-West against the French general Pageot;
• Cangé conquered the city of Léogane with the 21th, 24th thus freeing the department of Ouest-Mériddional;
• Germain Frère and Frontiste of the 11th and 12th controls the area of La Coupe, modern-day Pétionville.
• On there way to siege Port-au-Prince, JJD run Lux and the 5th light out of Croix-des-Bouquets on September 19.
• October 9, 1803, Pétion, Cangé, Gabart and Dessalines with the 3rd, 11th, 12th, 4th, 7th, 20th and 21st marched toward Port-au-Prince. Dessalines established its HQ in Turgeau, Louis Gabart was along rue St-Martin with his troops from the shore to Fort-National, Pétion was on St-Gérard hill with the artillery, and Cangé after taking Fort-Bizoton set up a battery Fort-Mercredi hill thus freeing the department of Ouest against the French general Lavalette;
• October 16, 1803, Geffrard, and Coco Herne conquered the city of Les Cayeswith the 13th and 15th, thus freeing the department of Sud against the French general Brunet;
• Christophe, Clerveaux, Cappoix, Romain and Dessalines gathers a division of 20 000 men from the 2nd, 6th, 8th, 4th, 7th, 3rd, 11th, 14th, 20th, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, the Regiment of Dragoons of Artibonite and an artillery regiment under the command of Zenon freed the city of Cap-Francais. JJD place his HD on habitation Lenormand de Mézy the same place where the Bwakayiman ceremony happened, he sent Paul Romain and Henry Christophe to Vigie through Port-Francais and Cappois, Vernet, and Charlotin to Cape-Heights (Haut-du-Cap) thus on November 19, 1803, freeing the department of Nord against the French general Rochambeau;
• December 4, 1803, Vincent Pourcelly with a battalion of the 9th demi-brigade freed the city of Mole-St-Nicolas, thus freeing the department of Bas-Nord-Ouest chasing the last troops out of Haiti and French general Louis Noailles;
• January 1, 1804, Congress of Gonaives the Independence of Hayti is declared by the Armée Indigéne.

• Toussaint Louverture, Commander-in-chief (1793-180, governor-general of Saint-Domingue 1801–1803)
• Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Commander-in-chief (1803-1804, first president and later emperor of Haiti)

• Henry Christophe, commander of Dondon and the 1st division of North region
• Alexandre Pétion, commander of Arcahaie and the 2nd division of West region
• Augustin Clervaux, commander of Marmelade and the 2nd division of North region
• Nicolas Geffrard, and the 1st division of South region
• Andre Vernet, commander of Gonaives and the 1st division of West region
• Louis Gabart, commander of St-Marc and the Artibonite region

• Paul Romain, commander of Limbé
• Étienne Élie Gerin, commander of Anse-à-Veau
• François Capois, commander of Port-de-Paix
• Jean-Philippe Daut
• Jean-Louis François, commander of Aquin
• Laurent Férou, commander of Jérémie
• Pierre Cangé, commander of Léogane
• Laurent Bazelais
• Magloire Ambroise, commander of Jacmel
• J. J. Herne, commander of Les Cayes
• Toussaint-Brave, commander of Fort-Liberté
• Yayou, commander of Grande Riv du Nord

• Jacques Maurepas
• Jean-François Papillon
• Georges Biassou
• Jeannot Bullet
• Louis Michel Pierrot
• Hyacinthe Moïse
• Joseph Balthazar Inginac
• Charlotin Marcadieu Chief of Cavalry

• Guy-Joseph Bonnet
• Chevalier
• Marion
• Morelly
• Papalier

• Nicolas Pierre Mallet