What did Thomas Jefferson think of the Haitian Revolution?

by Logical-knot

A lot is said about what Jefferson thought about the French Revolution but what did he think about the ideas of the Hatian Revolution? Did he ignore the ideas presented? Did he respect the people revolting or the counter revolutionaries? Did he not really know much about it? And what did he advise the French do?

Cranyx

In Thomas Jefferson's letter to Lafayette in 1791, he wrote about the American, French, and Haitian revolutions. He praised the French for "exterminating the monster aristocracy, & pulling out the teeth & fangs of it’s associate monarchy." However it is clear that he does not see the plight of the Haitians in the same light:

what are you doing for your colonies? they will be lost if not more effectually succoured. indeed no future efforts you can make will ever be able to reduce the blacks. all that can be done in my opinion will be to compound with them as has been done formerly in Jamaica. we have been less zealous in aiding them, lest your government should feel their restoration, and their connection with you, as you do yourselves.

Source

Here Jefferson speaks of the need for the French to placate and control the Haitians. He alludes to the peace treaties of the Jamaican First Maroon War, where the British offered a level of self governance to the rebelling slaves.

As president, Jefferson attempted to economically isolate the new, black-led Haitian government. This was in part an attempt to discourage similar rebellions in the American South, and calm the fears of slave-owners. (Jefferson and the Nonrecognition of Haiti, Matthewson)

therox22

I'm not a specialist in either American history, or Haitian History, but I've read this book on the subject, called Le Spectre de la Révolution Noire: L'impact de la Révolution Haitiene dans le monde atlantique by Alejandro Gomez. The focus of this book is to address the répercussions of the Haitian revolution in the Caribbean; mainly in southern United States, Cuba, Venezuela and Jamaica. These repercussions varies from the initials notices of the revolution, to the creation of a significance on the revolution, to the usage of the revolution on political debate.

Well, firstly, what are the main ideas, in the class that Jefferson belongs, about the revolution that I can give to guide you? Those are 3: The fear of revolutionary ideas (Jacobins); Racism ; and combining the two, the fear of the black Jacobins to bring violence to the beloved colonies. On the last subject, there was fear of uprising of black slaves on American colonies even before the haitian revolution, the revolution only made it worse.

Now, to your question, the author uses some Thomas Jefferson letters as documents for his book on the southern United States, and that is what I can answer. He mainly saw it as a consequence to the most radical ideas of the French revolution, and said ideas would come like wind to America. Also, he hoped that it's passage on the USA wouldn't be violent. Because that's his view on the Haitian revolution, violence. He thought that the revolution had a bad interpretation on the rights of men, in a violent way.

He also thought that blacks and whites couldn't live together due to the prejudices of the whites and the "grudge" of the blacks, one would like the other. That's why he had the idea of sending away black people to Africa, they couldn't be in America. A utopia of the white nation. Then, Haiti could be an option to send black people away.

In another document, in 179, it is also noted that he feared that Haiti would become a land of pirates, an "American Alger".

Since the book isn't about Jefferson, I can only give some very general lines on what he thought, based on the thesis and arguments of the author, that I also presented very generally. I hope I could grive you some guidelines to your question, if it's not clear I can try to give a more detailed response on the subjects of book.

Edit to provide the link.