Editing Toussaint Louverture (section)

===Treaties with Britain and the United States: 1798===
[[File:Le général Toussaint L'Ouverture recevant le général anglais Thomas Maitland le 30 avril 1798 (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|British commander [[Thomas Maitland (British Army officer)|Thomas Maitland]] meeting with Louverture to negotiate]]

For months, Louverture was in sole command of French Saint-Domingue, except for a semi-autonomous state in the south, where general André Rigaud had rejected the authority of the third commission.<ref>[[#Bell|Bell (2008) [2007]]], pp. 142–143.</ref> Both generals continued harassing the British, whose position on Saint-Domingue was increasingly weak.<ref>[[#James|James (1814)]], p. 201.</ref> Louverture was negotiating their withdrawal when France's latest commissioner, [[Comte d'Hédouville|Gabriel Hédouville]], arrived in March 1798, with orders to undermine his authority.<ref>[[#James|James (1814)]], pp. 201–202.</ref> Nearing  the end of the revolution Louverture grew substantially wealthy; owning numerous slaves at [[Ennery, Artibonite|Ennery]], obtaining thirty-one properties, and earning almost 300,000 [[Haitian livre|colonial livre]] per year from these properties.<ref>[[#Bell|Bell (2008) [2007]]], pp. 72–73.</ref> As leader of the revolution, this accumulated wealth made Louverture the richest person on Saint-Domingue. Louverture's actions evoked a collective sense of worry among the European powers and the US, who feared that the success of the revolution would inspire slave revolts across the Caribbean, the South American colonies, and the southern United States.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Meade |first=Teresa |author-link=Teresa Meade |title=A History of Modern Latin America: 1800 to the Present |publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Inc. |year=2016 |isbn=978-1118772485 |location=Chichester, West Sussex |page=68}}</ref>

On 30 April 1798, Louverture signed a treaty with [[British Army]] officer [[Thomas Maitland (British Army officer)|Thomas Maitland]], exchanging the withdrawal of British troops from western Saint-Domingue in return for a general amnesty for the French counter-revolutionaries in those areas. In May, [[Port-au-Prince]] was returned to French rule in an atmosphere of order and celebration.<ref>[[#James|James (1814)]], pp. 202, 204.</ref>

In July, Louverture and Rigaud met commissioner Hédouville together. Hoping to create a rivalry that would diminish Louverture's power, Hédouville displayed a strong preference for Rigaud, and an aversion to Louverture.<ref>[[#James|James (1814)]], pp. 207–208.</ref> However, General Maitland was also playing on French rivalries and evaded Hédouville's authority to deal with Louverture directly.<ref>[[#James|James (1814)]], pp. 211–212.</ref> In August, Louverture and Maitland signed treaties for the evacuation of all remaining British troops in Saint-Dominigue. On 31 August, they signed a secret treaty that lifted the British [[Royal Navy]]'s blockade on Saint-Domingue in exchange for a promise that Louverture would not attempt to cause unrest in the [[British West Indies]].<ref>[[#Bell|Bell (2008) [2007]]], pp. 159–160.</ref>

As Louverture's relationship with Hédouville reached the breaking point, an uprising began among the troops of his adopted nephew, Hyacinthe Moïse. Attempts by Hédouville to manage the situation made matters worse and Louverture declined to help him. As the rebellion grew to a full-scale insurrection, Hédouville prepared to leave the island, while Louverture and Dessalines threatened to arrest him as a troublemaker.<ref>[[#James|James (1814)]], pp. 219–220.</ref> Hédouville sailed for France in October 1798, nominally transferring his authority to Rigaud. Louverture decided instead to work with [[Phillipe Roume]], a member of the third commission who had been posted to the Spanish parts of the colony.<ref>[[#Bell|Bell (2008) [2007]]], pp. 165–166.</ref> Although Louverture continued to protest his loyalty to the French government, he had expelled a second government representative from the territory and was about to negotiate another autonomous agreement with one of France's enemies.<ref>[[#Bell|Bell (2008) [2007]]], pp. 166–167.</ref>

The United States had suspended trade with France in 1798 because of increasing tensions between the [[France–United States relations|American and French governments]] over the issue of [[privateer]]ing. The two countries entered into the so-called [[Quasi-War|"Quasi"-War]], but trade between Saint-Domingue and the United States was desirable to both Louverture and the United States. With Hédouville gone, Louverture sent diplomat [[Joseph Bunel]], a ''grand blanc'' former planter married to a [[Black Haitian]] wife, to negotiate with the [[Presidency of John Adams|administration]] of [[John Adams]]. Adams as a [[New Englanders|New Englander]] who was openly hostile to slavery was much more sympathetic to the Haitian cause than the [[George Washington|Washington]] administration before and [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] after, both of whom came from [[Southern United States|Southern]] slave-owning planter backgrounds. The terms of the treaty were similar to those already established with the British, but Louverture continually rebuffed suggestions from either power that he should declare independence.<ref>Philippe Girard, "Black Talleyrand: Toussaint L'Ouverture's Secret Diplomacy with England and the United States", ''William and Mary Quarterly'' 66:1 (January 2009), 87–124.</ref> As long as France maintained the abolition of slavery, he appeared to be content to have the colony remain French, at least in name.<ref>[[#Bell|Bell (2008) [2007]]], pp. 173–174.</ref>