All Souls' Rising (66 page)

FOOTNOTES

^*1
In overthrowing me, you have done no more than cut the trunk of the tree of black liberty in Saint Domingue—it will spring back from the roots, for they are numerous and deep.
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^*2
Citizen First Consul: I will not conceal my errors from you; I have committed some. What man has not? I am prepared to admit them. After the word of honor of the captain-general, who represents the government, after a proclamation made all over the colony, in which he promised to cast the veil of oblivion over the events which had taken place in Saint Domingue, I retired into the bosom of my family…
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^†3
Hardly a month had gone by before some ill-wishers, involved in intrigues, discovered how to destroy me in the eyes of the general in chief by inspiring his mistrust against me. I received a letter from him which ordered me to meet with General Brunet: I obeyed…
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^*4
I presented myself, accompanied by two people, at Gonaives, where they arrested me. They took me on board the frigate
La Creole
, for what reason I know not, with no other clothes than what I had on. The next day my house was prey to a looting, my wife and my children arrested: they had nothing, not even anything to wear…
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^*5
Citizen First Consul, the mother of a family, at 53 years of age, could merit the indulgence and goodwill of a generous and liberal government; she has no account to make, I alone must be responsible for my conduct before my government. I have too high an opinion of the grandeur and justice of the first magistrate of the French people to suspect his impartiality for one instant. I like to believe that the scale, in his hand, will not tilt more to one side than the other. I claim his generosity.
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^*6
There is no distance too great for you to hold Toussaint from the sea, no place too secure for you to put him. That man has fanatisized this country to such a point that his presence could blow it up again…
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^*7
It is necessary, Citizen Minister, that the government should have him put in a strong place in the middle of France, so that he can never have any way to escape and come back to Saint Domingue, where he has all the influence of the chief of a sect. If in three years this man reappeared in Saint Domingue he might destroy everything which France has accomplished there…
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^†8
It’s not everything to have removed Toussaint; there are 2000 chiefs here to have taken away…
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^*9
I have prepared such a woman to receive you tonight…Never have you known such joy, my dear Biassou, as that which awaits you this evening…
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^†10
The little thing will be obstinate, but bring along the whip with the hemp lash, to dispose her to submit to your desires…
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^*11
In this state of affairs, [Toussaint’s] trial and execution would do nothing but embitter the spirits of the blacks…. These men will get themselves killed, but they don’t want to give up.
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^*12
I have prepared such a woman to receive you tonight…Never have you known such joy, my dear Biassou, as that which awaits you this evening…The little thing will be obstinate, but bring along the whip with the hemp lash, to dispose her to submit to your desires…
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^*13
Wade Davis,
The Serpent and the Rainbow
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985), p. 181.
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^*14
Wade Davis,
The Serpent and the Rainbow
, p. 181.
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^†15
Wade Davis,
The Serpent and the Rainbow
, p. 181.
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FIRST VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION, NOVEMBER 2004

Copyright © 1995 by Madison Smartt Bell

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 1995.

Portions ol this novel were originally published, sometimes in altered form, in
Agni Review, Antaeus, Boulevard, Columbia, New Virginia Review, North American Review, Ploughshares, Southern Review,
and
Witness.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to
PolyGram Music Publishing
for permission to reprint excerpts from the following song lyrics: “400 Years” written by Peter Macintosh, copyright © 1972 by PolyGram International Publishing, Inc.; “Revolution” written by Bob Marley, copyright © 1975 by PolyGram International Publishing, Inc.; “Duppy Conqueror” written by Bob Marley, copyright © 1972 by PolyGram International Publishing, Inc.; “Eve” written by Marjorie Beaubrun, copyright © 1992 by Songs of PolyGram International, Inc. and Balenjo Music; “Jou Nou Revolte” written by Theodore Beaubrun, Jr., Mimerose Beaubrun, and Daniel Beaubrun, copyright © 1992 by Songs of PolyGram International, Inc. and Balenjo Music. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of PolyGram Music Publishing.

Watercolor on title page by Benjamin Latrobe. Courtesy of the Granger Collection.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the Pantheon edition as follows:
Bell, Madison Smartt.
All souls’ rising / Madison Smart Bell.
p. cm.
1. Haiti—History—Revolution, 1791–1804—Fiction. 2. Slavery—Haiti—Insurrections, etc.—Fiction. 3. Toussaint Louverture, 1743?–1803—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3552.E517A45                                                                        1995
813’.54—dc20                                                                        95-12339

www.vintagebooks.com

eISBN: 978-0-307-47250-2

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