The announcement of the death of Oge in the halls of the Assembly at Paris, created considerable excitement, and became the topic of conversation in the clubs and on the boulevards. Gregoire defended the course of the colored men and said: “If liberty was right in France, it was right in St. Domingo.” He well knew that the crime for which Oge had suffered in the West Indies, had constituted the glory of Mirabeau and Lafayette at Paris, and Washington and Hancock in the United States. The planters in the Island trembled at their own oppressive acts, and terror urged them on to greater violence. The blood of Oge and his accomplices had sown everywhere despair and conspiracy. The French sent an army to St. Domingo to enforce the law. The planters repelled with force the troops sent out by France, denying its prerogatives, and refusing the civic oath. In the midst of these thickening troubles, the planters who resided in France were invited to return, and to assist in vindicating the civil independence of the Island. Then was it that the mulattoes earnestly appealed to the slaves, and the result was appalling. The slaves awoke as from an ominous dream, and demanded their rights with sword in hand. Gaining immediate success, and finding that their liberty would not be granted by the planters, they rapidly increased in numbers; and in less than a week from its commencement, the storm had swept over the whole plain of the north, from east to west, and from the mountains to the sea. The splendid villas and rich factories yielded to the furies of the devouring flames; so that the mountains, covered with smoke and burning cinders, borne upward by the wind looked like volcanoes; and the atmosphere as if on fire, resembled a furnace. Such were the outraged feelings of a people whose ancestors had been ruthlessly torn from their native land and sold in the shambles of St. Domingo. To terrify the blacks and convince them that they could never be free, the planters were murdering them on every hand by thousands. The struggle in St. Domingo was watched with intense interest by the friends of the blacks, both in Paris and in London, and all appeared to look with hope to the rising up of a black chief, who should prove himself adequate to the emergency. Nor did they look in vain. In the midst of the disorder that threatened on all sides, the negro chief made his appearance in the person of a slave named Toussaint. This man was the grandson of the King of Ardra, one of the most powerful and wealthy monarchs on the west coast of Africa. By his own energy and perseverance, Toussaint had learned to read and write, and was held in high consideration by the surrounding planters, as well as their slaves.