They had even remained faithful to their king when he was
taken prisoner by the French Emperor and they had refused
to recognise Joseph Bonaparte, who had in the year 1808 been
made King of Spain by order of his brother.
Indeed, the only part of America to get very much upset
by the Revolution was the island of Haiti, the Espagnola of
Columbus' first trip. Here in the year 1791 the French Convention,
in a sudden outburst of love and human brotherhood,
had bestowed upon their black brethren all the privileges hitherto
enjoyed by their white masters. Just as suddenly they had
repented of this step, but the attempt to undo the original
promise led to many years of terrible warfare between General
Leclerc, the brother-in-law of Napoleon, and Toussaint l'Ouverture,
the negro chieftain. In the year 1801, Toussaint was
asked to visit Leclerc and discuss terms of peace. He received
the solemn promise that he would not be molested. He trusted
his white adversaries, was put on board a ship and shortly
afterwards died in a French prison. But the negroes gained
their independence all the same and founded a Republic.
Incidentally they were of great help to the first great South
American patriot in his efforts to deliver his native country
from the Spanish yoke.
Simon Bolivar, a native of Caracas in Venezuela, born in
the year 1783, had been educated in Spain, had visited Paris
where he had seen the Revolutionary government at work, had
lived for a while in the United States and had returned to his
native land where the widespread discontent against Spain,
the mother country, was beginning to take a definite form.
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