Summary

James opens this chapter by casting Toussaint as a kind of tragically flawed hero: “Toussaint in his twelve years of politics, national and international, made only one serious mistake, the one which ended his career” (224). Having dismissed Hedouville, Toussaint turned his sights towards squashing the Mulatto rebellion.

Meanwhile, Maitland left for the United States, where he discovered that Toussaint had been making arrangements with the Americans: “From no classes of people have Negroes suffered more than from the capitalists of Britain and America. They have been the most pertinacious preachers of race prejudice in the world” (227). And yet the Americans could be helpful to Toussaint politically.

Meanwhile, Toussaint butted heads with Rigaud, the leader of the Mulattoes. Speaking in public, Rigaud denied that he refused to obey Toussaint because he was black: “Besides, is there so great a difference between...