1803, November 29 – December 4: (The End of the Saint-Domingue Colony): On November 29, 1803, the Haitian victors entered the Cap in triumph, and three days …
1803, November 29 – December 4: (The End of the Saint-Domingue Colony): On November 29, 1803, the Haitian victors entered the Cap in triumph, and three days later, Dessalines ordered the 800 French sick and wounded to be taken to sea and drowned off La Tortue. At Môle St. Nicolas, Louis Noailles refused to surrender, successfully spiking his guns and evading the British blockade with seven ships on December 4. The final cost to France for the failed expedition was at least 55,000 dead soldiers and sailors, including eighteen generals—a toll higher than that of the Battle of Waterloo. As the last French ships departed, Dessalines declared that the country was finally their own, marking the only successful slave revolt in history. Napoleon’s defeat in Saint-Domingue effectively killed his aspirations in the Americas, forcing him to conclude that Louisiana was now beyond his reach.