linguistic:voice_change, quality:corruption, structural:expansion
Expansion of territory: 1799–1801

In 1799, the tensions between Louverture and Rigaud came to a head. Louverture accused Rigaud of trying to assassinate him to gain power over Saint-Domingue. Rigaud claimed Louverture was conspiring with the British to restore slavery. The conflict was complicated by racial overtones that escalated tensions between full blacks and mulattoes. Louverture had other political reasons for eliminating Rigaud; only by controlling every port could he hope to prevent a landing of French troops if necessary.

After Rigaud sent troops to seize the border towns of Petit-Goave and Grand-Goave in June 1799, Louverture persuaded Roume to declare Rigaud a traitor and attacked the southern state. The resulting civil war, known as the War of Knives, lasted more than a year, with the defeated Rigaud fleeing to Guadeloupe, then France, in August 1800. Louverture delegated most of the campaign to his lieutenant, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who became infamous, during and after the war, for massacring mulatto captives and civilians. The number of deaths is contested: the contemporary French general François Joseph Pamphile de Lacroix suggested 10,000 deaths, while the 20th-century Trinidadian historian C. L. R. James claimed there were only a few hundred deaths.

In November 1799, during the civil war, Napoleon Bonaparte gained power in France and passed a new constitution declaring that French colonies would be subject to special laws. Although many Black people in the colonies suspected this meant the re-introduction of slavery, Napoleon began by confirming Louverture's position and promising to maintain existing anti-slavery laws. But he also forbade Louverture to invade Spanish Santo Domingo, an action that would put Louverture in a powerful defensive position. Louverture was determined to proceed anyway and coerced Roume into supplying the necessary permission.

At the same time, in order to improve his political relationships with other European powers, Louverture tooks steps to stabilize the political landscape of the Caribbean, which included limiting his anti-slavery sentiments in the interest of realpolitik. When Isaac Yeshurun Sasportas, a Sephardic Jewish merchant from Saint-Dominigue, attempted to travel to the British colony of Jamaica to foment a slave rebellion there, Louverture initially supported him; however, as he decided he needed Britain's support, Louverture subsequently leaked Sasportas' intentions to the British authorities in Jamaica, who arrested and hung him in Kingston on December 23, 1799.

In January 1801, Louverture and his nephew, General Hyacinthe Moïse invaded the Spanish territory, taking possession of it from the governor, Don Garcia, with few difficulties. The area had been less developed and populated than the French section. Louverture brought it under French law, abolishing slavery and embarking on a program of modernization. He now controlled the entire island.