1802-02-00: (Leclerc Arrives in Haiti With 40,000 French Troops, the Largest Expeditionary Force Napoleon Ever Sent Across the Atlantic, Charged With Crushin…

1802-02-00: (Leclerc Arrives in Haiti With 40,000 French Troops, the Largest Expeditionary Force Napoleon Ever Sent Across the Atlantic, Charged With Crushing Louverture and Restoring French Control Over the Colony): In February 1802, General Leclerc arrived in Haiti with an expeditionary force of forty thousand troops, the largest Napoleon ever dispatched across the Atlantic. He was accompanied by his wife Pauline, Napoleon’s sister, and by the returning mulatto exiles Rigaud, Pétion, and Boyer, who had been recruited to exploit the racial divisions within the revolutionary movement. Napoleon’s orders were straightforward: crush Louverture, disarm the Black population, and restore French colonial authority. The unstated goal, which would become explicit once Louverture was removed, was the reimposition of slavery. The arrival of this enormous force announced that France would spend any amount of money and any number of lives to reclaim the colony whose wealth had once financed an empire.