Summary

James notes that after twelve years of civil and foreign war, the colony’s populations were decimated. Tens of thousands of people perished. Plantations and agriculture were destroyed. Nonetheless, the former slave population on the island had “no regret for the old” (242). James notes how strongly disciplined and how knowledgeable of French politics the people were; he also notes that the black people on the island had not internalized the inferiority of being a colonized, enslaved people: “That psychological weakness, that feeling of inferiority with which the imperialists poison colonial peoples everywhere, these were gone” (244).

Toussaint reorganized the island, creating a new judicial court system, a simpler tax code, and a new maritime police to cut down on contraband and smuggling. He tried to attract new investments to “backward” (246) San Domingo. In total, James notes that Toussaint’s government functions...