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THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION (1791–1804)
Before it became an independent nation Haiti was called Saint Domingue. This
was a French colony with tension between the different classes, blacks, coloureds,
poor whites and rich whites, which eventually spiraled into war.
White colonists and black slaves frequently had violent conflicts. Groups of
runaway slaves, known as maroons, lived in the woods away from control. They
often conducted violent raids on the island's sugar and coffee plantations.
Although the numbers in these bands grew large (sometimes into the thousands),
they generally lacked the leadership and strategy to accomplish large-scale
objectives. The first effective maroon leader to emerge was the charismatic
François Mackandal, who succeeded in unifying the black resistance. A Vodou
priest, Mackandal inspired his people by drawing on African traditions and
religions. He united the maroon bands and also established a network of secret
organizations among plantation slaves, leading a rebellion from 1751 through
1757. Although Mackandal was captured by the French and burned at the stake in
1758, large armed maroon bands persisted in raids and harassment after his
death.
THE SITUATION IN 1789
Guillaume Raynal attacked slavery in the 1780 edition of his history of European
colonization. He also predicted a general slave revolt in the colonies, saying that
there were signs of “the impending storm”.
Raynal’s prediction came true on the night of august 21st 1791, when the slaves
of Saint Domingue rose in revolt and plunged the colony into civil war. The signal
to begin the revolt was given by Dutty Boukman, a high priest of vodou and leader
of the Maroon slaves, during a religious ceremony at Bois Caïman on the night of
14 August. Within the next ten days, slaves had taken control of the entire
Northern Province in an unprecedented slave revolt. Whites kept control of only a
few isolated, fortified camps. The slaves sought revenge on their masters through
“pillage, rape, torture, mutilation, and death”. Because the plantation owners
long feared a revolt like this, they were well armed and prepared to defend
themselves. Nonetheless, within weeks, the number of slaves who joined the
revolt reached approximately 100,000. 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 newly elected Legislative Assembly in France to realize it was facing an
ominous situation. To protect France’s economic interests, the Legislative
Assembly needed to grant civil and political rights to free men of color in the
colonies. In March 1792, the Legislative Assembly did just that. Countries
throughout Europe as well as the United States were shocked by the decision of
the Legislative Assembly. Members of the Assembly were determined to stop the
revolt. Apart from granting rights to the free people of color, they dispatched
6,000 French soldiers to the island.
Meanwhile, in 1793, France declared war on Great Britain. The white planters in
Saint Domingue made agreements with Great Britain to declare British
sovereignty over the islands. Spain, who controlled the rest of the island of
Hispaniola, would also join the conflict and fight with Great Britain against France.
The Spanish forces invaded Saint Domingue and were joined by the slave forces.
By August 1793, there were only 3,500 French soldiers on the island. To prevent
military disaster, the French commissioner Sonthonax freed the slaves in his
jurisdiction. The decision was confirmed and extended by the National
Convention in 1794 when they formally abolished slavery and granted civil and
political rights to all black men in the colonies. It is estimated that the slave
rebellion resulted in the death of 100,000 blacks and 24,000 whites.[17]
GENERAL TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE.
One of the most successful black commanders was Toussaint L'Ouverture, a selfeducated former domestic slave. Like Jean François and Biassou, he initially
fought for the Spanish Crown in this period. After the British had invaded SaintDomingue, L'Ouverture decided to fight for the French if they would agree to free
all the slaves. Sonthonax had proclaimed an end to slavery on 29 August 1793.
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.
Under the military leadership of Toussaint, the forces made up mostly of former
slaves succeeded in winning concessions from the British and expelling the
Spanish forces. In the end, Toussaint essentially restored control of SaintDomingue to France. Having made himself master of the island, however,
Toussaint did not wish to surrender too much power to France. He began to rule
the country effectively as an autonomous entity. L'Ouverture overcame a
succession of local rivals (including the Commissioner Sonthonax; André Rigaud, a
free man of color who fought to keep control of the South; and Comte
d'Hédouville). Hédouville forced a fatal wedge between Rigaud and Toussaint
before he escaped to France. Toussaint defeated a British expeditionary force in
1798. In addition, he led an invasion of neighboring Santo Domingo(December
1800), and freed the slaves there in 3 January 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 expeditionary force of French soldiers
and warships to the island, led by Bonaparte's brother-in-law Charles Leclerc, to
restore French rule. They were under secret instructions to later restore slavery,
at least in the formerly Spanish-held part of the island. The numerous French
soldiers were accompanied by mulatto troops led by Alexandre Pétion and André
Rigaud, mulatto leaders who had been defeated by Toussaint three years earlier.
During the struggles, some of Toussaint's closest allies, including Jean-Jacques
Dessalines, defected to Leclerc.
L'Ouverture was promised his freedom, if he agreed to integrate his remaining
troops into the French Army. L'Ouverture agreed to this in May 1802. He was later
deceived, seized by the French and shipped to France. He died months later while
imprisoned at Fort-de-Joux in the Jura region.
RESISTANCE TO SLAVERY
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 (because they
had done so on Guadeloupe), Dessalines and Pétion switched sides again, in
October 1802, and fought against the French. In November Leclerc died of yellow
fever, like much of his army.
His successor, the Vicomte de Rochambeau, fought an even more brutal
campaign. His atrocities helped rally many former French loyalists to the rebel
cause. The French were further weakened by a British naval blockade, and by the
unwillingness of Napoleon to send the requested massive reinforcements. Having
sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States in April 1803, Napoleon began to
lose interest in his failing 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. It 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 major loss was a decisive blow to France and its
colonial empire.
FREE REPUBLIC
On 1 January 1804, Dessalines, the new leader under the dictatorial 1801
constitution, declared Haiti a 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.
Haiti was forced to make reparations to French slaveholders in 1825 in the
amount of 150 million francs, reduced in 1838 to 60 million francs, in exchange
for French recognition of its independence and to achieve freedom from French
aggression. This indemnity bankrupted the Haitian treasury. It mortgaged Haiti's
future to the French banks that provided the funds for the large first installment,
permanently affecting Haiti's ability to be prosperous.
The end of the Haitian Revolution in 1804 marked the end of colonialism in Haiti.
The social conflict cultivated under slavery continued to affect the population.
The revolution left in power an affranchi élite as well as the formidable Haitian
army. France continued the slavery system in Martinique and Guadeloupe.
IMPACT
The Haitian Revolution was influential in slave rebellions in the United States and
British colonies. According to Haitian writer Michael J. Dash, the U.S. government
feared that a successful slave revolt in Haiti would inspire a similar revolt in the
United States. The U.S. government thus used its influence in Haiti to promote
repressive regimes.
The loss of a major source of Western revenue shook Napoleon's faith in the
promise of the Western world, encouraging him to unload other French assets in
the region, including the Louisiana territory. In the early 19th century, thousands
of refugees, including free people of color and white planters, of whom some in
both categories owned slaves which they brought with them, settled in New
Orleans, adding many new members to both its French-speaking mixed-race
population and African population.
In 1807, Britain became the first major power to permanently abolish the slave
trade. However, slavery was not fully abolished in the British West Indies until
1833. It continued in the French colonies until 1848. The Haitian Revolution stood
as a model for achieving emancipation for slaves in the United States who
mimicked Toussaint L'Ouverture's actions. L'Ouverture remains a popular figure
to this day.
In 2004, Haiti celebrated the bicentennial of its independence from France.