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The Haitian Revolution
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The Haitian Revolution (1791–1803) was the period of violent conflict in the French colony of SaintDomingue, leading to the elimination of slavery and the establishment of Haiti as the first republic ruled
by people of African ancestry. Although hundreds of rebellions occurred in the New World during the
centuries of slavery, only the revolt on Saint-Domingue, which began in 1791, was successful in
achieving permanent freedom. The Haitian Revolution is regarded as a defining moment in the history
of Africans in the new world.
Background
The riches of the Caribbean depended on Europeans' taste for sugar, which plantation owners traded
for provisions from North America and manufactured goods from European countries. Starting in the
1730s, French engineers constructed complex irrigation systems to increase sugarcane production. By
the 1740s Saint-Domingue, together with Jamaica, had become the main supplier of the world's sugar.
Sugar production depended on extensive manual labor provided by enslaved Africans in the harsh
Saint-Domingue colonial plantation economy. The white planters knew they were outnumbered by
slaves and lived in fear of slave rebellion. In fact, white colonists and black slaves frequently had violent
conflicts. Groups of runaway slaves, known as maroons, lived in the woods. They conducted violent
raids on sugar and coffee plantations.
In 1758, the white landowners began passing legislation that set restrictions on the rights of other
groups of people until a rigid caste system was defined. At the top were the white colonists, or blancs. A
second group was the free blacks (usually mixed-race, known as mulattoes or gens de couleur, free
people of color). These tended to be educated, literate and often served in the army or as
administrators on plantations. Many were children of white planters and slave mothers. The third group,
outnumbering the others by a ratio of ten to one, was made up of mostly African-born slaves. A high
rate of mortality among them meant that new slaves were being continually imported. They spoke a mix
of French and West African languages known as Creole.
In 1789 Saint-Domingue, producer of 40 percent of the world's sugar, was the most profitable colony
the French owned and in fact the wealthiest and most flourishing of the slave colonies in the Caribbean.
The slave population on the island totaled almost half of the one million slaves in the Caribbean. They
were mostly African-born. The death rate in the Caribbean exceeded the birth rate, so imports of
enslaved Africans continued.
Among Saint-Domingue’s 40,000 white colonials in 1789, European-born Frenchmen controlled the
government. The sugar planters (grand blancs) usually returned to France as soon as possible, hoping
to avoid yellow fever. The lower class whites (petit blancs) included artisans, shopkeepers, slave
dealers, overseers, and day laborers. Saint-Domingue’s free people of color (gens de couleur)
numbered more than 28,000. Many of them were also artisans, overseers, or domestic servants.
In France, the National Assembly published the Declaration of the Rights of Man on 26 August 1789,
declaring all men free and equal. The French Revolution shaped the course of the conflict in SaintDominque. Rich European planters, who had resented France's limitations on the island's foreign trade,
wanted independence from France. The Africans mostly opposed the French Revolution and wanted to
ally with Britain. The Africans knew that if Saint-Domingue's independence were to be led by white
slave masters, it would probably mean even harsher treatment and increased injustice for the slaves.
1791 Slave Rebellion
On 22 August 1791, the slaves of Saint Domingue rose in revolt and plunged the colony into civil war.
The signal to begin the revolt was given by a high priest of vodou and leader of the Maroon slaves,
during a religious ceremony on the night of August 14. Within the next ten days, slaves had taken
control of the entire Northern Province in an unprecedented slave revolt that left the whites in control of
only a few isolated, fortified camps. The slaves sought revenge on their masters. Because the
plantation owners long feared a revolt like this, they were well armed and prepared to defend
themselves. Within weeks, the number of slaves that joined the revolt was approximately 100,000, and
within the next two months, as the violence escalated, the slaves killed 4,000 whites and burned or
destroyed 180 sugar plantations and hundreds of coffee and indigo plantations.
By 1792, slaves controlled a third of the island. The success of the slave rebellion caused the
Legislative Assembly in France to send 6,000 French soldiers to the island to protect France’s
economic interests. Meanwhile, in 1793, France declared war on Great Britain. The white planters and
slave owners in Saint Domingue made agreements with Great Britain to declare British control over the
islands. Spain, who controlled the rest of the island of Hispaniola, also fought with Great Britain against
France. The Spanish forces invaded and were joined by the slave forces. By August 1793, there were
only 3,500 French soldiers on the island. To prevent military disaster, a French commissioner freed the
slaves in his jurisdiction. The decision was confirmed when the French National Convention formally
abolished slavery and granted civil and political rights to all black men in the colonies in 1794. It is
estimated that the slave rebellion resulted in the death of 100,000 blacks and 24,000 whites.
Leadership of Toussaint L’Ouverture
One of the most successful black commanders was Toussaint L'Ouverture, a self-educated former
domestic slave. He initially fought for the Spanish crown. After the British had invaded Saint-Domingue,
he decided to fight for the French if they would agree to free all the slaves. L'Ouverture worked with a
French general, Étienne Laveaux, to ensure all slaves would be freed. He brought his forces over to the
French side in May 1794 and began to fight for the French Republic. Many enslaved Africans were
attracted to Toussaint's forces. He insisted on discipline and restricted wholesale slaughter.
In the end, L’Ouverture essentially restored control of Saint-Domingue to France. Having made himself
master of the island, however, he did not wish to surrender too much power to France. He began to rule
as if the island were its own country. Toussaint defeated a British expeditionary force in 1798, and even
led an invasion of neighboring Santo Domingo, freeing the slaves there by 1801.
In 1801, L'Ouverture issued a constitution for Saint-Domingue which provided for autonomy and
decreed that he would be governor-for-life. In retaliation, Napoleon Bonaparte dispatched a large force
of French soldiers and warships to the island to restore French rule and possibly slavery. During the
struggles, some of Toussaint's allies, including Jean-Jacques Dessalines, defected. L'Ouverture was
promised his freedom, if he agreed to move his troops into the French Army. He agreed to this in May
1802 but was later deceived, seized, and shipped off to France. He died months later while in prison.
Jean Jacques Dessalines
For a few months the island was quiet under Napoleonic rule. But when it became apparent that the
French intended to re-establish slavery, Dessalines and others switched sides again, and fought
against the French. In November, Leclerc died of yellow fever, like much of his army, and his
successor, the Vicomte de Rochambeau, fought an even more brutal campaign. The French were
further weakened by a British naval blockade, and by the unwillingness of Napoleon to send the
requested massive reinforcements. Napoleon had sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States in
April 1803, and had begun to lose interest in his ventures in the Western Hemisphere. Dessalines led
the rebellion until its completion when the French forces were finally defeated in 1803.
The last battle of the Haitian Revolution, the Battle of Vertières, occurred on 18 November 1803, near
Cap-Haitien and was fought between Haitian rebels led by Jean-Jacques Dessalines and the French
colonial army under the Viscount of Rochambeau. On 1 January 1804, from the city of Gonaïves,
Dessalines officially declared the former colony's independence, renaming it "Haiti" after the indigenous
Arawak name. This was a major loss for France and its empire.
Free republic
Haiti was the first independent nation in Latin America, the first post-colonial independent black-led
nation in the world, and the only nation whose independence was gained as part of a successful slave
rebellion. The country was crippled by years of war, its agriculture devastated, its formal commerce
nonexistent, and the people uneducated and mostly unskilled.
Haiti agreed to make reparations to French in exchange for French recognition of its independence and
to achieve freedom from French aggression. This bankrupted the Haitian treasury permanently affecting
Haiti's ability to be prosperous. France formally recognized Haiti as an independent nation in 1834, as
did the United States in 1862. The Haitian Revolution stood as a model for achieving emancipation for
slaves in the United States who attempted unsuccessfully to mimic Toussaint L'Ouverture's actions.