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The insurrection on the island of San
Domingo came from the mass of
enslaved blacks in the French sugar
plantation colony there, who risked
everything to pursue freedom. In 1791,
the outbreak of the Haitian Revolution,
at first localized in one district of the
colony’s northern plain, soon spawned
waves of slave insurgencies that
assembled and fought the horrors of
oppression.
Historical accounts written by white
contemporaries downplayed the
organization of the blacks, and
proposed chaotic, random events by
groups of revolting slaves as the cause
of revolution. However, the resistance
had leadership, organization, and a
unifying objective. Their struggle lasted
for twelve years, and became the only
successful slave revolt in human
history.
The main motive was to gain their freedom.
Resentment at the ill-treatment by the
managers or overseers.
Segregation and social Hierarchy
Lack of provisions
Incentives
The whites(grand blancs and petit blancs),
the plantation owners wanted to rule
themselves and the rest of the government.
The mulattoes wanted to be equal to the
whites and the slaves wanted freedom.
The first cause and an important one would be
freedom. Slavery was introduced in Haiti. They
outnumbered the whites by 10 to 1. They were
treated extremely badly and never received
proper education. There were two types of
slaves: the domestic slaves and field hand
slaves. Domestic slaves took care of the
households while the field hand slaves took
care of the plantations. The domestic slaves
were treated better than the field hand slaves,
but they were still both treated unequally.
These slaves began to be very angry with their
masters and some slaves even had rebellions,
such as the Mackendell Rebellion, towards
their masters as the revolution goes on.
The whites
The free people of color
The black slaves
The maroons
Before the Haitian Revolution there was
social hierarchy, which became one of the
main causes of the Haitian Revolution.
There were four major classes: the whites,
free people of color, black slaves, and
maroons. The whites were divided into two
groups; the petit blancs and the planters.
The Planters were the wealthiest and petit
blancs, who were in the middle class,
weren’t as wealthy as planters. The whites
were mainly plantation owners and other
people with power. The free people of color
were black people who bought freedom.
They were often wealthier than some petit
blancs, and considered themselves better than
black slaves. The black slaves usually worked
under the whites, in plantations, and were
treated very badly. The maroons are runaway
slaves that formed their own tribe. They kept
the African culture. Many people felt that the
social hierarchy system was very unfair;
especially black slaves. They thought people
should not be divided just by their skin color.
The unfairness of this social hierarchy was
one of the contributors that eventually led to
the Haitian Revolution.
.
The last cause for the start of the Haitian
Revolution, was the anger towards France. The
Haitians were extremely angry at France for
various reasons. One of the reasons was the
system of the “exclusif”, a system in which the
Haitians could only trade with France. Even
though this “exclusif” has been taken place,
many of the Whites were illegally trading with
the Americas. Another reason to back up this
cause is the because of the tight restrictions of
France, the whites were unable to adequately
provide for their slaves.
Thus resulting in the death of planter’s due to
yellow.
Slaves had heard of the French Revolution and
organized meetings to discuss their rights. James
wrote, "As early as October 1789, in Fort
Dauphin, one of the future centres of the San
Domingo insurrection, the slaves were stirring
and holding mass meetings in the forests at
night. In isolated plantations there were
movements. All were bloodily repressed.
Revolutionary literature was circulating among
them." Furthermore, some French soldiers
arriving on San Domingo carried revolution
sentiment to the blacks
" In March 1791,… the French soldiers, on
landing at Port-au-Prince, had given the
fraternal embrace to all Mulattoes and all
Negroes, telling them that the Assembly in
France had declared all men free and equal.
At many places near Port-au-Prince the
Negroes were seizing arms and
rebelling.“Organization of black rebels
appeared around the island of San Domingo
after the outbreak of August 1791. Gangs of
rebels working in sugar plantations organized
themselves into camps of revolutionaries.
Oppressed workers now joined forces and
organized as soldiers. "The slaves worked on
the land, and, like revolutionary peasants
everywhere, they aimed at the extermination
of their oppressors. But working and living
together in gangs of hundreds on the huge
sugar-factories which covered the North Plain,
they were closer to a modern proletariat than
any group of workers in existence at the time."
As forward progress was made camps were set
up. "The rebels followed the same plan; they
stationed camps in all the districts they had
ravaged."
•Yellow fever.
•Segregation
•French Revolution
•The slaves were armed by their master
•Declaration of Rights of Man passed in
France on August 26, 1789. It stated, "In the
eyes of the law all citizens are equal.
The consequences of the Haitian Revolution were
considerable. It sounded the death knell for slavery
throughout the world and weakened colonialism in the
Americas. For example, in 1805 the Venezuelan
revolutionary Francisco de Miranda received assistance
from General Jean-Jacques Dessalines to liberate South
America from the yoke of Spain. Similarly, in 1815 the
liberator Simón Bolívar received substantial aid from
the Haitian president Alexandre Pétion to fight for
freedom and independence in Latin America. The
Haitian Revolution remains one of the greatest
revolutions of modern times and changed the
perspective of human beings on slavery, colonialism,
and man's exploitation of man.
1803
Apr 30, 1803 - With the loss of the crown jewel
of its planned Western empire, France sold off the vast
Louisiana territory to the United States on April 30,
1803.
1804
Jan 1, 1804 - The wounded French soldiers were left
behind under key until well enough for return to France.
This battle occurred less than two months
before Dessalines' proclamation of the
independent Republic of Haiti on 1 January 1804 and
delivered the final blow to the French attempt to stop the
Haitian Revolution and re-institute slavery, as had been
the case in its other Caribbean possessions.
1825
1825 - In 1825, French King Charles X demanded that
Haiti pay an “independence debt” to compensate former
colonists for the slaves who won their freedom in the
Haitian revolution. With warships stationed along the
Haitian coast backing up the French demand, France
insisted that Haiti pay its former colonizer 150 million
gold francs — 10 times the fledgling black nation's total
annual revenues.
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The brutality of white plantation owners towards
their slaves culminated in a deep- rooted sense of
anguish and resistance among the oppressed. Slave
organization began prior to any French
Revolutionary ideas, through religion, language, and
mass gatherings in woods. After the French
Revolutionary legislation was passed it created an
opportunity to abolish slavery in San Domingo.
Leaders of the Haitian Revolution understood that
the whites were now divided and confused, and
assembled a revolution. There was one objective complete abolition of slavery, and to achieve that
goal these men and women were willing to challenge
the most powerful nation at the time and won.
James C.L.R., The Black Jacobins-Toussaint
L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution.
New York: Vintage Books, 1989.
 http://scholar.library.miami.edu/slaves/san_domi
ngo_revolution/revolution.html
 http://www.answers.com/topic/haitianrevolution#ixzz1BsqlNEjc
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0GUJIwzo6
g&feature=related
