Printed Cloth of the Directory and Napoleon
This image presents an idealized version of Napoleon during the Directory, especially his intellectual contributions. In the upper right corner he appears before the Directory. Along the right bottom, Napoleon clearly confronts the Middle East, both its Egyptian Pyramids and Christian elements, as three wise men bow before him.
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Day of Saint-Cloud
The problems of the revolutionary government had so intensified that the two leaders, Abbé Sieyès and Roger Ducos, plotted to overthrow it with the help of the most famous military man of the day. But the legislative body, particularly the lower house, proved resistant. Napoleon needed the help of his younger brother Lucien to rally the troops and erase the opposition.
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The Saving of France
In this propagandistic allegorical engraving, Napoleon saves the female figure of France from the abyss to which she has been led by "revolutionary fanaticism." The figure of fanaticism is armed to the teeth with "the daggers of party spirit" and holds in one hand the chains of slavery and in the other the torch of discord.
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Scene of Directory Life, Men and Women from L’Optique du Jour
After Jacobin control faded, with its repression of exuberant social life as well as political diversity, the following years saw a rebirth of open pleasures. This image focuses on fashionable men and women enjoying the good life. Some contemporaries would see this as excessive and self–indulgent, and far bolder displays of sexuality and materialism.
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Demographics of Saint Domingue
The most evident statistic to be seen here is that slaves, already making up almost nine–tenths of the population, were increasing at a far more rapid rate than either whites or free people of color. Inevitably, in a revolutionary situation, slaves were bound to make their presence felt.
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Execrable Human Traffick, or The Affectionate Slaves
This reproduction of a painting by George Morland (1789) has lurid colors and shows the sale of a slave. The artist suggests that friends or relatives are being separated, as one of the slaves is being forcibly restrained as the other slave is being ushered into a boat.
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Toussaint L’Ouverture
A slave inspired by the French Revolution’s egalitarianism, Toussaint saw himself as French and struggled for French control of the island of Saint Domingue. Nonetheless, he had no intention of letting whites rule, for he wanted blacks to control their own destinies. By 1801 he had conquered the entire island for France and for his fellow slaves.
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The Mode of Exterminating the Black Army as Practised by the French
The fighting between the French and the Haitians was very bloody. When the French tried to put down Toussaint in 1802, it took them some five months with an expeditionary force of 23,000. Supplied by locals, the French seized the towns, gradually extending their control to the countryside. Eventually they even captured L’Ouverture but never could quell the uprising.
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Revenge Taken by the Black Army for the Cruelties Practised on Them by the French
This execution simply suspends the French officer in the air, slowly strangling him to death. His struggles, emphasized by the convulsing legs, reveal the hatred visited on opponents, themselves guilty of so many atrocities.
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