Early America
Great Decisions
Foreign Policy in the
Jefferson Administration
How a Revolution in Haiti made America great
Prior to its independence,
Haiti was a French colony
known as St. Domingue. St.
Domingue’s slave-based
sugar and coffee industries
had been fast-growing and
successful, and by the 1760s
it had become the most profitable colony in the Americas. With the economic
growth, however, came increasing exploitation of the
African slaves who made up
the overwhelming majority
of the population. Prior to
and after U.S. independence,
American merchants enjoyed
a healthy trade with St.
Domingue.
Timeline:
End of the American
Revolution
1783
French Revolution
1789
Haitian Revolution
starts
1791
L’Ouverture captured
by Napoleon
1802
France withdraws from
Haiti
1803
??????????
1803
U.S. Recognizes Haiti
1862
The French Revolution had a
great impact on the colony.
St. Domingue’s white minority split into Royalist and
Revolutionary factions, while
the mixed-race population
campaigned for civil rights.
Sensing an opportunity, the
slaves of northern St.
Domingue organized and
planned a massive rebellion
which began on August 22,
1791.
When news of the slave revolt broke out, Pro-slavery
American leaders rushed to
provide support for the
whites of St. Domingue.
However, the situation became more complex when
civil commissioners sent to
St. Domingue by the French
revolutionary government
convinced one of the slave
revolt leaders, Toussaint
L’Ouverture, that the new
French Government was
committed to ending slavery.
What followed over the next
decade was a complex and
multi-sided civil war in
which Spanish and British
forces also intervened.
The situation in St.
Domingue put the Democratic-Republican party and its
leader, Thomas Jefferson, in
somewhat of a political dilemma. Jefferson believed
strongly in the French Revolution and the ideals it promoted, but as a Virginia
slaveholder popular among
other Virginia slaveholders,
Jefferson also feared the
specter of slave revolt. When
faced with the question of
what the United States
should do about the French
colony of St. Domingue, Jefferson favored offering limited aid to suppress the revolt, but also suggested that
the slave-owners should aim
for a compromise similar to
The Battle of St. Dominigue
that Jamaican slaveholders
made with communities of
escaped slaves in 1739. Despite their numerous differences on other issues, Secretary of the Treasury and
leader of the rival Federalist
Party Alexander Hamilton
largely agreed with Jefferson
regarding Haiti policy.
The Haitian revolution came
to North American shores in
the form of a refugee crisis.
In 1793, competing factions
battled for control of the then
-capital of St. Domingue,
Cap-Français. The fighting
and ensuing fire destroyed
much of the capital, and refugees piled into ships anchored in the harbor. The
French navy deposited the
refugees in Norfolk, Virginia. Many refugees also
settled in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York.
Foreign Policy in the Jefferson Administration
America Insulted! War with France!
Haitian leader Toussaint
L’Ouverture
The French Emperor Napoleon
Bonaparte
The third President of the
United States, Thomas
Jefferson
Page 2
These refugees were predominantly white, though many had
brought their slaves with them.
The refugees became involved
in émigré politics, hoping to
influence U.S. foreign policy.
Anxieties about their actions,
along with those of European
radicals also residing in the
United States, led to the passage of the Alien and Sedition
Acts. The growing xenophobia
(fear/hatred of foreigners),
along with temporarily improved political stability in
France and St. Domingue, convinced many of the refugees to
return home. The beginning of
the Federalist administration of
President John Adams signaled
a change in policy. Adams was
resolutely anti-slavery and felt
no need to aid white forces in
St. Domingue. He was also
concerned that L’Ouverture
would choose to pursue a policy of state-supported piracy
like that of the Barbary States.
Lastly, St. Domingue’s trade
had partially rebounded, and
Adams wished to preserve
trade links with the colony.
Consequently, Adams decided
to provide aid to L’Ouverture
against his British-supported
rivals. This situation was complicated by the Quasi-War with
France—L’Ouverture continued to insist that St. Domingue
was a French colony even as
he pursued an independent
foreign policy.
Under President Thomas Jefferson’s presidency, the United
States cut off aid to L’Ouverture and instead pursued a pol-
icy to isolate Haiti, fearing
that the Haitian revolution
would spread to the United
States. These concerns
were in fact unfounded, as
the fledgling Haitian state
was more concerned with
its own survival than with
exporting revolution. Nevertheless, Jefferson grew
even more hostile after
L’Ouverture’s successor,
Jean-Jacques Dessalines,
ordered the execution of
whites remaining after the
Napoleonic attempts to reconquer St. Domingue and
re-impose slavery Jefferson refused to recognize
Haitian independence, a
policy to which U.S. Federalists also acquiesced.
Although France recognized Haitian independence in 1825, Haitians
would have to wait until
1862 for the United States
to recognize Haiti’s status
as a sovereign, independent nation. Napoleon and
the French gave up hope of
reclaiming Haitia after the
defeat of a second 10,000
man French army at the
hands of Tossaint L’Ouverture’s forces in 1802.
Questions:
Why was Jefferson hesitant
to support the Haitian revolutionaries?
What factors separated
Federalists and Democratic
-Republicans over the issue
of Haiti?
Why do you think it took
the U.S. until 1862 to recognize the independence of
Haiti? (What is significant
about the year and the composition of the U.S. government?
What could this possibly
have to do with making
America great?
What similarities do you
see between the American
situation in 1790’s Haitian
and America’s situation in
2011 Egypt?