1799-March-12: Federalist Representative Robert Goodloe Harper of South Carolina circulated a sensational report to justify the government’s support for Tous…

1799-March-12: Federalist Representative Robert Goodloe Harper of South Carolina circulated a sensational report to justify the government’s support for Toussaint Louverture. He claimed that only Toussaint’s recent seizure of authority from the French General Hédouville had prevented a planned French invasion of the Southern United States. According to Harper, the French had intended to land an army in the South to incite a massive slave insurrection against American masters. He asserted that French secret agents were already active among the enslaved populations of the Southern states to prepare for this attack. This rhetoric was used to frame Toussaint as a “bulwark” protecting the United States from the more dangerous radicalism of the French Republic.