1798 to 1802 · Haitianspan

Toussaint refuses to sew Bonaparte's promise onto his flags

Ordered to inscribe that only France guarantees black freedom, Louverture quietly declines.

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1798 to 1801 · Haitianspan

Toussaint takes Santo Domingo to block a landing, not to free it

Girard reads the annexation as a defensive move against France rather than an abolitionist campaign.

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1798 to 1800 · Diasporaspan

Jefferson pays an enslaved doctor twice and then hunts a conjuror

Four unexplained deaths at Monticello, one practitioner, and a prosecution that failed.

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1 January 1798 · Haitian

A law makes the colonies equal and the field workers voteless

Active citizenship requires battle service, some property, or an electoral contribution.

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20 April 1798 · Haitian

Hedouville sets up at Le Cap and Toussaint does not come to meet him

The new French agent arrives to find his subordinate negotiating with the British.

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April 1798 · Pre-Revolutionarymonth known

A merchant tells Pickering that black Saint-Domingue wants trade

Richard Yates reports that the colony will declare itself independent if French supply stops.

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13 June 1798 · Pre-Revolutionary

Congress shuts American trade with France and every French dependency2 sources

The embargo that closed Saint-Domingue's ports to American ships is the law the dinner was called to undo.

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June 1798 · Diasporamonth known

A governor bars black refugees from landing in Pennsylvania

Four ships arrived and the state treated the passengers as a contagion.

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1798 · Haitianyear only

The Maitland agreement turns British defeat into a monopoly

Protection from privateers applied to one man, and it made him unassailable at home.

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1798 · Pre-Revolutionaryyear only

The man who spoke for the black revolution was a white merchant

Bunel ran the colony's payroll from 1787 and was married to a black woman.

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1798 · Haitianyear only

One teacher for a thousand pupils: the method Christophe imported

Lancaster's monitorial system reaches England in 1798 and becomes the method of the royal schools.

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24 July 1798 · Haitian

Hedouville makes freedom conditional on a three-year contract

Six months in prison for the unemployed, and written permission to attend a weekday market.

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August 1798 · Haitianmonth known

Against his superior's advice Toussaint treats with Maitland

The British leave the island and take a secret commercial treaty with them.

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31 August 1798 · Pre-Revolutionary

Louverture promises not to touch Jamaica and gets Britain out

The evacuation deal at Mole Saint-Nicolas is signed behind the back of France's own agent.

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15 November 1798 · Haitian

Toussaint orders the freed back onto the plantations for wages

The liberator's labour proclamation binds the newly free to the estates they left.

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November 1798 · Pre-Revolutionarymonth known

A paymaster carries Louverture's offer of protection to John Adams

Joseph Bunel sails with a proposal: American trade in exchange for safety from privateers.

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December 1798 · Diasporamonth known

A London paper credits Britain with the happy revolution

Toussaint is praised as a negro chief or king, and his troops disappear.

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December 1798 to January 1799 · Diasporaspan

Louverture's envoy dines with Adams to get the embargo lifted

Congress had cut off the colony's only remaining trading partner, and the revolution needed it back.

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18 December 1798 · Pre-Revolutionary

Louverture's envoy reaches Philadelphia with a letter for Adams

Joseph Bunel arrives with a letter for Adams, and Pickering tells him the president cannot receive him.

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26 December 1798 · Pre-Revolutionary

A secretary of state dines with a black government's envoy

Pickering's invitation for half past three opens the first American diplomacy with a black-led government.

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