1801, December – 1802, January: (Napoleon’s Machiavellian Instructions and the Leclerc Expedition): Napoleon Bonaparte resolved to “annihilate the government…

1801, December – 1802, January: (Napoleon’s Machiavellian Instructions and the Leclerc Expedition): Napoleon Bonaparte resolved to “annihilate the government of the blacks” in Saint-Domingue, viewing the colony as a necessary staging base for the eventual occupation of Louisiana. He appointed his brother-in-law, Victor-Emmanuel Leclerc, to lead 20,000 veteran soldiers with secret instructions to execute a three-phase operation: seize coastal towns, smash organized resistance, and effect pacification through mobile columns. Leclerc was directed to negotiate and “promise everything” to Toussaint in the first phase, only to ship him and all other black generals to France once control was established. Napoleon’s ultimate goal was the restoration of slavery and the total disarmament of the noir population. The armada of 67 ships carried elite troops and also Leclerc’s wife Pauline, her court, and Toussaint’s two sons, Isaac and Placide, who were used as bait.