Could Haiti Have Helped Prevent the American Civil War if John Adams had been re-elected President in 1800? Let’s Speculate…
And would we have had less racial tension in the 20th century?
By 1799, the revolutionaries in Saint-Domingue led by Toussaint Louverture had brilliantly defeated the Spanish and British who had invaded the French colony, attempting to annex it as their own. Toussaint also neutralized French government control to become the ultimate power broker in the colony.
However, these Haitian revolutionaries were not trying to pull down the power of their previous absentee slave masters but join the New
All men are created equal?
Atlantic World order on an equal footing with them. The revolt in Haiti had also given hope to the American slaves, who were still enthusiastic about the promise of 1776 – you know… that saying that all men are created equal?
These slaves aspired to the belief that not only could liberty be theirs if they were brave enough to try for it, but like the Haitians, equality with the master class might be theirs if they were brave enough to go for it like the Haitians were now doing. For black enslaved Americans, this was an exciting moment, a moment of great inspiration.
However, for the southern planter class, it was a moment of enormous terror!
However, for the southern planter class, it was a moment of enormous terror! Black Haitian ex-slaves were being recruited by the thousands to work as sailors on ships and arriving with money in their pockets in Southern ports to be admired by the U.S. slaves who were now learning that there was a new nation that overthrew their masters and created a country.
So, let us go back to that Spring of 1799 when Toussaint Louverture, then Governor-General of Saint Domingue (island of Haiti), and John Adams, President of the United States, reached a deal for diplomatic relations and a trade agreement that would benefit America and Haiti.
Make it stand out
Trade was making Americans and Saint-Dominguens rich
The Deal dubbed the Toussaint Clause in the American Congress was an amendment to allow President Adams to open trade with the island as long as Toussaint’s government assured protection for American merchant ships from French pirates, guaranteed the security of American citizens and promised not to invade the Southern United States to promote a slave revolt. Toussaint had a powerful 60,000-man standing army at the time.
However, Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson narrowly defeated Federalist John Adams in the election of 1800. Jefferson then
Hundreds of Ships were being built in all shipyards
immediately set out to dismantle all the agreements that John Adams and Toussaint Louverture had worked so hard to create. The party’s first three Democratic-Republican presidents—Jefferson (1801–09), James Madison (1809–17), and James Monroe (1817–25)—were all wealthy, aristocratic Southern planters, though all three shared the same liberal political philosophy.
But if Adams would have won the 1800 elections instead of Thomas Jefferson and his successors Madison and Monroe, what may have been our combined history?
In my opinion, trade between the United States and Haiti would have flourished. Every shipyard in America and Haiti was feverishly rushing to build ships back then to fill capacity. The landowners who had left
Immigration from the U.S. to Haiti?
Haiti were returning in droves, welcomed with open arms by Toussaint, to re-establish their plantations albeit now by paying workers for labor with cash and a plot of land to grow their crops on their days off as per the law of the land.
John Adams, though not a pure abolitionist and his successors probably would have promoted the eventual emancipation of the American slaves as they could point to a successful working model in Haiti of the productivity of paid labor as opposed to slave labor.
If indeed the U.S. slaves were set free, Toussaint, who would be desperate for new workers, would presumably allow mass immigration by U.S. freed slaves onto the island because many of his island’s ex-
620,000 Americans died in the U.S. Civil War - Needlessly?
slaves no longer wanted to work the fields on industrial plantations and simply envisioned a life of owning a small plot of land with a hut in the hills and growing food to feed themselves and their families.
If the slaves were freed in the United States, there would have been no civil war for thousands of Americans to die for and the race tensions of the 20th century may never have occurred. Now, I know this sounds rather radical, but not impossible to perceive if history could have been different.
It would not be until 1825 that John Adams’ son, John Quincy Adams, would be elected President of the United States, and gradual progress was made over the years toward the emancipation of the slaves, but this would be a long time in coming - nearly 80 years later than slave emancipation in Haiti. Adams was defeated in 1829 and served as a senator for 17 years thereafter.
