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What Language Did Toussaint Louverture Speak?: The Fort de Joux Memoir and the Origins of Haitian Kreyòl*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Philippe R. Girard
Philippe R. Girard*
Affiliation:
McNeese State University
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Abstract

Using contemporary accounts, letters drafted by former slaves, and the memoir written by Toussaint Louverture shortly before his death, this article attempts to recreate the language spoken by Haitian revolutionaries and, in particular, Toussaint Louverture. Detailed historical and linguistic analysis of these sources shows that Louverture wrote predominantly in French, only employed Kreyòl orally (especially when addressing a working-class audience), and rarely used the Ewe-Fon language of his Arada ancestors. His memoir suggests that Haitian Kreyòl, which some linguists think is derived from African languages, was more influenced by archaic, popular, or regional variants of French. Louverture’s preference for French also reinforces theses that describe him as a moderate figure inclined toward the European model.

Type
The West Indies and Europe in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
Information
Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales - English Edition , Volume 68 , Issue 1 , March 2013 , pp. 107 - 130
Copyright
Copyright © Les Éditions de l’EHESS 2013

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Footnotes

*

This article is accompanied by documentary material and a comprehensive translator’s note available under the heading “Complementary Reading” on the Annales website: http://annales.ehess.fr.

References

This article uses the rare documents directly written by the revolutionaries of Saint-Domingue—especially the most famous among them, Toussaint Louverture— in order to reconstitute their way of speaking and eventually restore their voice. Such an approach has both linguistic and historical merit, allowing for further comprehension in the field of oral culture in colonial Haiti, particularly that of popular French and Kreyòl. By demonstrating the extent to which Louverture

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32. Pierrot to [Sonthonax], 9 July 1793, aa55/a, file 1512, AN, Paris.

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42. Jean-Baptiste Coisnon to Denis Decrès, 20 February 1802, Le moniteur universel 212 (1802): 1.

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46. Sonthonax to Directoire exécutif, 11 pluviôse VI [30 January 1798], AF/III, 210, AN, Paris.

47. “Toussaint Louverture au fort de Joux (1802). Journal du général Caffarelli,” Nouvelle revue rétrospective 94 (1902): 17.

48. The word “Toussaint” appears at the bottom of the burial act for Louverture’s eldest son, dated November 17, 1785. This possibly corresponds to his signature (document produced by Jean-Louis Donnadieu). See 1DPPC 2324, Archives nationales d’outremer (hereafter “ANOM”), Aix-en-Provence.

49. Métral, Histoire de l’expédition, 326.

50. Jean-Baptiste to Moïse, 22 thermidor VIII [10 August 1800], (Phi) 1602, Borie Family Papers, box 6:11, Historical Society of Pennsylvania (hereafter “HSP”), Philadelphia. “Weve bin producin since the 12 thermidor weve made 11 barrel sugar with grate difficultee for lak o fanimals an water.”

51. “Ime sentin the laun dry you asktfor, Iave five serviets wich youve wit you ana bag.” Suzanne Louverture to Louverture, 13 July 1794, 61J18, ADGir, Bordeaux.

52. Jean-François Biassou et al. to [Mirbeck, Saint-Léger, Roume], 12 December 1791, *D/XXV/1, AN, Paris.

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54. Louverture to Dessalines, October 1798, autograph file, T., Houghton Library, HU, Cambridge; Louverture to Gabriel d’Hédouville, ca. 1798, AF/III, 210, AN, Paris; Louverture to Renne de Saba, 28 germinal VII [17 April 1799], Papers of Toussaint Louverture, Library of Congress, Manuscript Division (hereafter “LC-MD”), Washington, D.C.; Louverture to Dupuche, 10 May 1800 and 24 September 1801, (Phi) 1602, Borie Family Papers, box 6:6, HSP, Philadelphia; Louverture to Augustin d’Hébécourt, 15 ventôse IX [6 March 1801], ms. f Hait. 69-29, BPL, Boston; and Louverture to Henry Christophe, 8 floréal X [28 April 1802], 61J18, ADGir, Bordeaux. The British National Archives have a copy that respects the spelling of the original which has since disappeared: see “Council minutes,” November 22, 1799, CO 137/107, BNA, Kew.

55. Louverture to Dessalines, October 1798, autograph file, T., Houghton Library, HU, Cambridge.

56. Jacques de Cauna, ed., Toussaint Louverture et l’indépendance d’Haïti. Témoignages pour un bicentenaire (Paris/Saint-Denis: Karthala/SFHOM, 2004), 102.

57. Charles Guillaume Castaing to [Sonthonax?], 7 March [1793], *D/XXV/16, file 758, AN, Paris.

58. Louverture to Hédouville, ca. 1798, AF/III, 210, AN, Paris.

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61. “Extrait des registres des délibérations des consuls,” 4 thermidor X [July 23, 1802], 7Yd284, Service historique de la Défense (hereafter “SHD-DAT”), Vincennes; Baille to Philippe Romain Ménard, 9 fructidor X [27 August 1802], B7/6, SHD-DAT, Vincennes.

62. File 1 contains six letters: AF/IV/1213, AN, Paris. See also: Louverture to Suzanne Louverture, 17 September 1802, in Histoire de Toussaint Louverture, by Pauléus Sannon, 3:162; Louverture to Marie François Caffarelli, ca. 17 September 1802, in “Toussaint Louverture au fort de Joux (1802). Journal du général Caffarelli,” Nouvelle revue rétrospective 94 (1902): 17; and Louverture to Baille, in Documents inédits pour l’histoire : Correspondance concernant l’emprisonnement et la mort de Toussaint Louverture, ed. Louis Morpeau (Port-au-Prince: Librairie du Sacré-Cœur, 1920), 9.

63. AF/IV/1213, file 1, AN, Paris; EE1734, file 2, ANOM, Aix-en-Provence.

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65. Daniel Desormeaux, “The First of the (Black) Memorialists: Toussaint Louverture,” Yale French Studies 107 (2005): 131-45; Desormeaux, ed., Mémoires, 15 and 43.

66. Louverture to Bonaparte, 30 fructidor X [17 September 1802], AF/IV/1213, file 1, AN, Paris.

67. Louverture to Baille, ca. 18 October 1802, CC9B/18, AN, Paris.

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69. Jacques de Cauna, ed., Mémoires du général Toussaint-Louverture commentées par Saint-Rémy (Guitalens-L’Albarède: Éd. La Girandole, 2009); Desormeaux, Mémoires.

70. EE1734, file 2, ANOM, Aix-en-Provence.

71. Saint-Rémy, Mémoires, 18; Chaptal to Decrès, 24 floréal XI [14 May 1803], 8Yd638, SHD-DAT, Vincennes.

72. “Rapport de Caffarelli au Premier Consul,” ca. September 16, 1802, in Histoire de la captivité et de la mort de Toussaint Louverture. Notre pèlerinage au fort de Joux, by Nemours, Alfred (Paris: Berger-Levrault, 1929), 249 Google Scholar.

73. Jeannin to Isaac Louverture, 24 November 1810, ms. NAF 6864, BNF, Paris.

74. Lacroix, La révolution de Haïti, 355.

75. AF/IV/1213, file 1, AN, Paris.

76. Baille to Bry, 17 vendémiaire XI [9 October 1802], TL-2B2b, Nemours Collection, Universidad de Puerto Rico Rio Piedras, San Juan.

77. Ménard to Berthier, 30 vendémiaire XI [22 October 1802], B7/8, SHD-DAT, Vincennes.

78. Louverture to Bonaparte, 26 October 26 1802, AF/IV/1213, file 1, AN, Paris.

79. Baille to Decrès, 23 brumaire XI [14 November 1802], CC9B/18, AN, Paris.

80. Berthier to Bonaparte, 13 prairial XI [2 June 1803], AF/IV/1213, file 1, AN, Paris; Pluchon, Toussaint Louverture, 537.

81. AF/IV/1213, file 1, AN, Paris.

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85. On the confusion between /u/ and /o/ in France (criticized by Vaugelas), see Buffier, , Grammaire françoise, 344 Google Scholar. On the /u/ and /o/ in Kreyòl, see Valdman, , Le créole, 181 Google Scholar.

86. On the /i/ and the /e/ in rural Kreyòl, see: Hall, Pidgin and Creole Languages, 30; Schieffelin and Charlier Doucet, “The ‘Real’ Haitian Creole,” 189.

87. Respectively: Louverture to Bonaparte, 9 October 1802, AF/IV/1213, file 1, AN, Paris; Suzanne Louverture to Louverture, 13 July 1794, 61J18, ADGir, Bordeaux.

88. On the pronunciation of “e” in France, see Buffier, , Grammaire françoise, 333-35 Google Scholar.

89. On the pronunciation of “s,” “t,” and “o” in Kreyòl, see Valdman, , Le créole, 181 Google Scholar.

90. On the /g/ and the /K/ in Kreyòl, see ibid. (other possible pronunciations: lagè, zegwi, kè, sèk, sonjé). On Auvergnat pronunciation, see Doniol, Henri, Les patois de la Basse Auvergne. Leur grammaire et leur littérature (Paris: Maisonneuve et Cie, 1877), 28 Google Scholar.

91. On the /t/ in French, see Buffier, , Grammaire françoise, 360 and 373 Google Scholar. On the /t/ in Kreyòl, see: Valdman, , Le créole, 179 and 181 Google Scholar; Schieffelin, and Doucet, Charlier, “The ‘Real’ Haitian Creole,” 192 Google Scholar.

92. On elisions in Kreyòl, see Valdman, , Le créole, 178 Google Scholar. On elisions in French, see: Buffier, , Grammaire françoise, 352-56 and 370 Google Scholar; Viard, and Boisjermain, Luneau de, Les vrais principes, 1:72 Google Scholar.

93. Louverture to Bonaparte, 9 October 1802, AF/IV/1213, file 1, AN, Paris.

94. On the /j/ in Kreyòl, see Goodman, , A Comparative Study, 29 Google Scholar; Valdman, , Le créole, 181 Google Scholar. On the /j/ in French, see Buffier, , Grammaire françoise, 355 Google Scholar.

95. AF/IV/1213, file 1, AN, Paris.

96. Molière, Les femmes savantes, act II, scene 6.

97. On nasalization in Norman French, see Buffier, , Grammaire françoise, 38 and 357 Google Scholar. On nasalization in rural Kreyòl, see Schieffelin, and Doucet, Charlier, “The ‘Real’ Haitian Creole,” 190 Google Scholar.

98. Madiou, Histoire d’Haïti, 2:91.

99. On apheresis and agglutination in Kreyòl, see Valdman, , Le créole, 180 Google Scholar.

100. Sylvain, Le créole haïtien, 38, 49, and 161.

101. On the conjugation of modern Kreyòl, see ibid., 103.

102. Valdman, Le créole, 373-79.

103. Bayon de Libertat to Pantaléon II de Bréda, 7 July 1783, 18AP/3, file 12, AN, Paris.

104. Goodman, A Comparative Study, 124.

105. Faine, Philologie créole; Valdman, Le créole, 373-79.

106. Saint-Rémy, Mémoires, 88; Jenson, Beyond the Slave Narrative, 304; and Desormeaux, Mémoires, 9.

107. Moreau de Saint-Méry, Description topographique, 1:66.

108. Ducœurjoly, Manuel des habitans, 2:359.

109. “Mon odyssée,” ca. 1798, box 1, 85-117-L, P., HNOC, New Orleans.

110. AF/IV/1213, file 1, AN, Paris.

111. Valdman, Le créole, 295 and 323.

112. AF/IV/1213, file 1, AN, Paris (underlined in the original text).