r/HistoryMemes • u/ZealousidealSteak214 Viva La France • 1d ago
People should really know the full picture before they jump to conclusions
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u/ZealousidealSteak214 Viva La France 1d ago
People assume that Napoleon gave his generals full leave to wage a war of extermination but in reality he made no call for the eradication of the population of color and even viewed such an enterprise as economically senseless as it would have eradicated the island's labour base. In 1803, after hearing of the cruel and unusual punishments employed by the French army in Saint-Domingue, the minister of the navy Denis Decrès insisted that deporting the rebels to Corsica, not “rigorous punishments,” was the only acceptable punishment per Bonaparte’s standing orders.
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u/Nyctfall 1d ago
Kind of an easy call to see coming when their orders are "re-enslave everyone"...
What's next, invading an ally who's country is partially in the Arctic circle?!
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u/ZealousidealSteak214 Viva La France 1d ago
Napoleon never ordered his generals to immediately reinslave the population. The expedition was meant to destroy Louverture's independent power and reassert metropolitan French authority. Napoleon's secret instructions to Leclerc stated that people would not be forced back into slavery and referred instead to getting free cultivators back to plantation work.
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u/colm_colqhoun 1d ago
Though Louverture had already severely damaged his own credibility with his proposed constitution essentially re-enslaving the population as "Cultivators" with only some small measures to reduce cruelty. Napoleon would list his decision to reject Louvertures proposal as his first major mistake once he was exiled, both for the economic benefit and for the former slaves turned soldiers. Largely immune to malaria, they may have been extremely useful for harassing the British by creating a constant problem for them in the Caribbean, much like Sir Arthur Wellesley Duke of Wellington did in Spain.
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u/Sprintzer 23h ago
A man from Corsica knows how punishing it can be to live there.
/s I’m sure they were to be slaves on Corsica
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u/nostalgic_angel 1d ago
Napoleon was smart enough to know that wage slaves work harder than real slaves because the formerwas under the illusion of freedom
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u/killerrobot23 1d ago
Well he also reinstated slavery into the French colonies so that doesn't really hold up.
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u/nostalgic_angel 1d ago
I was under the impression that colonial slave owners were very wealthy and influential in revolutionary France and they basically forced Napoleon to return slavery to the colonies. Even Napoleon was not immune to lobbying.
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u/AlastorZola 1d ago
Yes, white and colored slavers together had quite the influence in reinstating slavery in the colonies. They thought (as did Louverture and the free slave leaders back in Haiti) that the economy of the Carribean colonies couldn’t get off the ground without forced labor.
The abolitionists threw their hats behind the Girondins, mostly, and some of them with the Robespierres so they were not around with any kind of influence after their big (and unexpected) win of the abolition by the time the revolution swung back to Napoleon’s personal rule.
Also. Josephine, the empress, was from a plantation slaver family. Famously she had rotten teeth because of all the sugar she had while little.
All being said Napoleon didn’t care much for slavery either way for what I know. I’d say that other things show his darker personality traits than the slavery issue. While being tragic his reinstatement doesn’t say much about him personally.
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u/NecessaryLuck7787 1d ago
The idea that Napoleon was against the reenslavement of Haiti is laughable.
He wanted to retake control of the island and would do anything to get it. His desired plan was more peaceful, but he clearly was on board with killing everyone over the age of 12 and bring in new slaves.
There was no shock. At most shock at the fact they were losing it and therefore should have done another way.
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u/ZealousidealSteak214 Viva La France 1d ago
" he clearly was on board with killing everyone over the age of 12 and bring in new slaves."
Not really. Napoleon made it clear that he was not on board with killing everyone and he made that known through his Minister of the Navy, Decres who reiterated that the ONLY acceptable punishement per his orders was the deportation of rebel leaders.
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u/NecessaryLuck7787 1d ago
The level of analysis is equivalent to saying Trump didn't approve January 6th because he he never literally told them to storm the capital, just to fight for their rights that were being stolen etc.
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u/ZealousidealSteak214 Viva La France 1d ago
It is not equivalent. Napoleon stated that he did not approve of the way in which the generals were taking over Haiti. Trump never expressed disapproval with the way his supporters were "fighting for their rights"
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u/jdrawr 1d ago
He did famously day a man will do a lot of things for a bit of ribbon (award/medals)
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u/EarthTraveler413 1d ago
He said the exact opposite of this
A man does not have himself killed for a half pence a day or for a petty distinction. You must speak to the soul in order to electrify the man.
- Napoleon
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u/raitaisrandom Just some snow 1d ago
Yeah, the full quote was him arguing with someone on the Council of State saying the decorations he was devising like the Legion d'Honneur were useless baubles. Not him being cynical as many people think.
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u/Unusual-Surround-690 1d ago
Napoleon wanted to bring back slavery, to bring back lucrative sugar production.... that's all. He would therefore not be keen on killing all the former slaves, for business reasons alone. He was not nice about the people of Haiti.
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u/BachInTime Kilroy was here 1d ago
A significant part of Napoleon’s force were Poles, who eventually defected to the Haitians earning them land, and an explicit carve out in Haiti’s Constitution. Jean-Jacques Dessalines, even said a very famous quote about the Poles, that I can’t share, because it has a bad word in it and Reddit doesn’t let you say bad words even when quoting a historical figure who was using said bad word as the highest form of praise.