View source for Toussaint letter to Napoléon from Fort de Joux (1802)

[[image:louverture_signature.jpg|right|thumb|180px|Signature of Toussaint Louverture ]][[Toussaint Louverture]] wrote the following letter from captivity in the dungeon at [[Fort de Joux]] to [[Napoléon Bonaparte]].<br><br>

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<p align="right">In the dungeon of [[Fort de Joux|Fort Joux]], this 30 [[Fructidor]], an XI. (17th September, [[1802]])</p>


GENERAL, AND [[Napoléon_Bonaparte|FIRST CONSUL]],

The respect and the submission which I could wish forever graven on my heart  ''[here words are wanting as if obliterated by tears ([[Beard]])]''. If I have sinned in doing my duty, it is contrary to my intentions; if I was wrong in forming the constitution, it was through my great desire to do good; it was through having employed too much zeal, too much self-love, thinking I was pleasing the Government under which I was; if the formalities which I ought to have observed were neglected, it was through inattention. I have had the misfortune to incur your wrath, but as to fidelity and probity, I am strong in my conscience, and I dare affirm, that among all the servants of the state no one is more honest than myself. I was one of your soldiers, and the first servant of the Republic in [[St. Domingo]]; but now I am wretched, ruined, dishonored, a victim of my own services; let your sensibility be moved at my position. You are too great in feeling and too just not to pronounce a judgment as to my destiny. I charge [[General Cafarelli]], your aide-de-camp, to put my report into your hands. I beg you to take it into your best consideration. His honor, his frankness have forced me to open my heart to him.


:Salutation and respect,

:TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE
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==Reference==
* {{Toussaint L'Ouverture: A Biography and Autobiography}} (p. 279)

==See also==
* [[List of Toussaint Louverture related pages]]
* '''[[Memoir of Toussaint Louverture, Written by Himself]]'''
* [[Toussaint Louverture letter to Napoléon from onboard the Heros]]
* [[Letter by the French Minister of the Marine to the Commandant at Fort de Joux]] - 1802 letter specifying the conditions under which Toussaint Louverture should be held captive.
* [[General Caffarelli]] - Napoléon's aide-de-camp, sent to interrogate Toussaint Louverture.
* [[The Last Days Of Toussaint L'Ouverture]] - account of a 1859 visit to [[Fort de Joux]].
* [[To Toussaint Louverture - poem by Wordsworth]]



[[Category:Documents of the Haitian Revolution]]
[[Category: Toussaint Louverture letters|Napoléon Fort de Joux]]