Yellow Fever Was Just As Important as Toussaint L’Ouverture in the Haitian Revolution
We’ve all heard about Hamilton: the exuberant broadway musical written by Lin-Manuel Miranda that brings light to the life of Alexander Hamilton. By telling the story of the American Revolution with witty, wonderfully-written songs, Hamilton does an exemplary job of depicting the role of a Hamilton as a pivotal leader in the history of America.
Much like Hamilton, The Black Jacobins is another great telling to turn to. Written by C.L.R James, the historical account tells the history of the Haitian Revolution, mostly through the feats of a great leader: Toussaint L’Ouverture. Throughout, James gives much credit to L’Ouverture, but glazes over an important aspect that helped the Haitians win the revolution: yellow fever. We know the role that disease can play in changing populations, wars, and generational characteristics of a country — which yellow fever certainly did for Haiti — but this is just briefly mentioned in The Black Jacobins. Thus, although Hamilton and The Black Jacobins effectively detail successful revolutions through the feats of great leaders, The Black Jacobins ultimately fails to address the central role that yellow fever played.
Yellow fever is a virus spread by the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti. Generally, yellow fever symptoms begin to show within one week of infection. If lucky, a French soldier would experience mild symptoms of headaches, fever, muscle pain, and nausea. However, due to the rainy season and high amounts of mosquito breeding, soldiers experienced detrimental forms of the disease. The dangerously high fevers, severe headaches, muscular pains, jaundice, and vomiting that came along with it often led to delirium, coma, and death.
Overall, yellow fever ended up killing more French soldiers than battle did. And for the Haitians? The “indigenous population…had been largely free of endemic disease…due to an acquired immunity or infrequent contact with infected vectors, or both,” according to researchers John Marr and John Cathy. What the French considered weak in the Haitians actually ended up being their greatest fighter: being a black native.
Toussaint L’Ouverture’s strong leadership and the will of the Haitians only advanced their causes. The Haitians took the upper-hand gracefully; as disease wiped out the French, they took every won battle with optimistic hope and looked towards Toussaint for more strategic leadership. As for the French, realizing their struggles with disease and lack of food, they called for reinforcements. Little did they know that this would end up being one of their key factors in losing. Yellow fever hit and claimed the newcomers more viciously than those already on the island. This only energized the Haitians further, and their unwavering resistance led to even more French deaths.
It is undeniable that disease played a crucial role in the success of the Haitians as it amplified France’s struggles and the feats of great leaders like Toussaint. However, despite this, CLR James barely mentions yellow fever until the last pages of The Black Jacobins as the fighting in the Haitian Revolutionary War begins — and even then, it’s brief.
Disease is first mentioned on page 123, where James, talking about the Haitians, notes that “Famine and disease were decimating their forces.” This statement insinuates that disease was actually ravaging the natives and not the French. Why did CLR James take this large upper-hand and turn it against the Haitians? James writes to appeal to colonies ready for an imperial overthrow; this statement, although stretched, shows that even Haitians had their weaknesses, but were eventually still able to overcome large obstacles.
Then, in Chapter 13, James begins describing the long fight of the Haitian Revolution — and yellow fever finally makes its spotlight. The French arrive in Saint Domingue in late December of 1801, and in February, the French begin to fight and conquer. Then, a short time later, Leclerc writes a letter: the French are suffering, largely of sickness. This letter indicating that yellow fever is beginning to ravage the French serves as a turning point for the war — and acknowledges the sheer importance of the disease. The war continues, and the French continue to fall victim to the disease. This, coupled with Toussaint’s strong leadership leads the Haitians to have a stronghold and defeat the French.
Many writings on the Haitian Revolution acknowledge the strong leadership of Toussaint, but fail to neglect the way yellow fever is intertwined with the turning point of the war and the weakness of the French. Yellow fever is so strongly correlated with French failure that it is hard to deny the sickness was the most important factor in the French downfall.
As healthcare professionals, disease is often thought of as a horrendous manifestation meant to be fought and cured. However, in the Haitians’ case, it helped in their fight. The spread of infectious disease, which originally hindered slaves during slave trade and their work, ended up being a key factor in the defeat of an oppressor. While other African colonies in the time of James’s writing did not have to face diseases like yellow fever, this subtle recognition of disease could have been a reminder that, even in times of injustice, there can are natural forces that can give natives power to fight an oppressor.
The spread of infectious disease, which originally hindered slaves during slave trade and their work, ended up being a key factor in the defeat of an oppressor.
If Napoleon had succeeded, it is certain he would have reenslaved the Saint Domingue natives, taken complete control of the island, and spread his influence throughout the Americas. And though important to note Toussaint’s overarching leadership and victories played a great role in ensuring that this didn’t happen, few rarely recognize the pivotal role yellow fever played. Without it, Saint Domingue — the island full of profit and culture — would have simply become another facet of Napoleon’s egotistical nature and the United States may have never gained the Louisiana Purchase. The Haitian epidemic was an unexpected catastrophe that changed history.
Although we don’t anticipate another yellow fever outbreak happening to help a revolutionary cause, we can look towards Yemen today in how the massive cholera epidemic has changed the way of the Yemen Civil War. Around 2200 deaths have been reported thus far (World Health Organization). Save the Children’s country director for Yemen, Tamer Kirolos, commented on the state of Yemen, stating “There’s no doubt this is a man-made crisis. Cholera only rears its head when there’s a complete and total breakdown in sanitation. All parties to the conflict must take responsibility for the health emergency we find ourselves in.”
The long two years of fighting between the Saudi alliance and Houthi rebels has devastated Yemen. Funding for the public health department was halted in 2016, which has resulted in many doctors and medical staff not receiving compensation for more than a year. The main source of healthcare has since come from international organizations, which has also been hindered by conflict and government neglect.
The direction and advantages for each side remains uncertain for now, but it is undeniable that the disease will continue to play a tremendous role in the war and history in Yemen thereafter.
For now, we should learn from the past and look towards the future: the last chapter of disease playing a pivotal role in wars has not yet been written.