Hamilton and Louverture’s Haitian Revolution

In September 1791, as soon as it began, Hamilton urged the Washington Administration to provide financial and tentative military support for the French colonists to suppress the slave revolt in Haiti (known as St. Domingo in those days). Hamilton was also indirectly involved in forming US foreign policy later in the Haitian Revolution. In 1799, Secretary of State Timothy Pickering asked him for advice about reorganizing Haiti’s government. They both believed that a constitutional republic was beyond the ability of black former slaves. Hamilton distrusted the black ruler, Toussaint Louverture, and considered him an unreliable future ally against France. He said that the best government for Haiti was a hereditary military dictatorship, and hesitated to advocate its independence. Pickering sent Hamilton’s recommendations to Edward Stevens, US consul to St. Domingo and Hamilton’s lifelong friend. Hamilton’s only substantive positive mention of Louverture was in an anonymous newspaper article that he wrote in 1803, insisting that Louverture, not President Jefferson, deserved credit for the United States obtaining Louisiana from France.