Over the course of many

years, courageous human

beings stood up against the
French Empire. These heroes
sacrificed their lives, so
slavery would be gone
throughout the Americas.
This story is a tribute to their
heroism, strength, and
determination to cause Haiti
to be a free, independent,
nation. The Haitian
Revolution caused
monumental changes in the
world.

The Haitian Revolution

It has been over two centuries since Haiti had its own independence. Before 1804, war, slavery, and
oppression existed in Haiti for centuries. The island of Hispaniola was a victim of genocide and
slavery (by Western imperialist criminals) for a long time. Yet, determined, courageous black
people heroically defeated not only French imperialists, but imperialists from other European
nations too. Haiti itself inspired many slave revolts and the black liberation movement in general.
We have modern scholars and black people globally currently who are inspired by the Haitian
Revolution. The Haitian Revolution was bloody, it was long, and many of our Brothers and Sisters
were murdered by imperialists during the configuration. Today, we have a clearer understanding of
the events. We are totally reminded about its historical significance.
significance Future generations should
learn about the Haitian Revolution in order for them to remember our ancestors and for them to
be motivated in continuing the fight for social justice. From 1791 to 1804, we have seen the strength
of black people, who were fighting to end slavery. One hero of the Haitian Revolution was
Toussaint L'Ouverture (1743-1803). After America's independence (which was filled with bourgeois
components and overtly hypocritical contradictions), nations in the Caribbean including Latin
America fought for independence and justice. Dessalines and Henri Christopher worked in the
audacious journey for Haitian freedom too. Black women like Sanité Bélair worked in the Haitian
Revolution for freedom as well.

Now, it is time to not only show the history of the Haitian revolution. It is time to further inspire
the younger generation to fight for human justice too.

An Introduction
Before the Haitian Revolution, black people in Haiti were suffering tons of injustices. European
imperialists demanded sugar. Plantation owners in Haiti traded sugar for European and North
American manufactured goods. Back then, Haiti was called Saint Domingue by the French. Haiti
had extensive coffee, cocoa, and indigo plantations. Yet, these were less profitable than wealthy
sugar plantations. By the 1730’s, French engineers created complex irrigation systems to grow
sugarcane production. By the 1740’s, Saint-Domingue together with Jamaica, had become the main
supplier of the world’s sugar. More African slaves were used to produce sugar and slaves were
heavily brutalized in the Haitian colonial plantation economy. Haiti was the most profitable French
colony in the world. There was an average of 600 ships engaged every year in shipping products
from Saint-Domingue to Bordeaux (in France). The value of Saint-Domingue’s goods was almost
equal in value to all of the products shipped from the British 13 colonies to Great Britain. France
depended heavily on the crops of coffee, indigo, and sugar from Saint Domingue. 1 million people
lived in Haiti back then and 25 million people lived in the Kingdom of France in 1789. Many people
died of malaria and yellow fever. The French in 1787 imported 38,000 slaves to all of their
Caribbean colonies. The death rate from yellow fever was such that at least 50% of the slaves
imported from Africa died within a year of arriving, and as such the slave owners preferred to work
the slaves as hard as possible. The slave owning oppressors would provide black slaves with the
barest minimum of food and shelter, calculating that it was better to get the most work out of their
slaves with lowest possible expense possible. Many slaves died of yellow fever and other diseases.
Many slaves did polyandry (or one woman married to many men) because the death rate of slaves
were so high. Slaves were denied human rights. Slave owners regularly raped black women in Haiti
back then. That was evil and wrong. Africans outnumbered white planters more than ten to one.
The planters feared a slave rebellion.

The French slave owners were very cruel against slaves. White slave owners used physical violence.
Slaves were whipped for resisting. Some were burned and castrated. They did these things to warn
other slaves too. Louis XIV, the French King, passed the Code Noir in 1685 in an attempt to
regulate such violence and the treatment of the enslaved person in general in the colony, but slave-
owners openly and consistently broke the code. Local legislation reversed parts of it throughout the
18th century. Coir Noir is a disgrace since slavery should be banned outright not regulated. In 1758,
white landowners passed legislation to restrict the rights of other people until a rigid caste system
was instituted.

Most historians defined the caste system into 3 groups. One was the white colonists (or blancs).
This group was subdivided into plantation owners and a lower class of whites, who were overseers
or day laborers. The second group was the free black people (usually black, biracial or multiracial
people. They were the gens de couleur libres, free people of color). The gens de couleur had
educational experience, were literate, and many were in the army. Some were even administrators on
plantations. Many of them were children of white planters and enslaved mothers (so, these mothers
were raped) while others had purchased their freedom from slave owners (from the sale of their
own produce or artistic works). Many of them had artisan training. Some of them inherited freedom
or property from their fathers. Some gens de couleur even operated their own plantations and were
slave owners. The third group was the largest group in Haiti. They were the mostly black African
born slaves.

A high rate of mortality among them meant that planters continually had to import new slaves. This
kept their culture (of the Africans) more African and separate from other people on the island.
Many plantations had large concentrations of slaves from a particular region of Africa, and it was
therefore somewhat easier for these groups to maintain elements of their culture, religion, and
language. This also separated new slaves from Africa from creoles (slaves born in the colony), who
already had kin networks. The slaves born in the Caribbean or lived in the region for a while often
had more prestigious roles on plantations and more opportunities for emancipation. Most slaves
spoke a patois of the French language known as Creole, which was also used by native biracial
people and whites for communication with the workers.

The majority of the slaves were Yoruba from what is now modern Nigeria, Fon from what is now
Benin, and from the Kingdom of Kongo in what now modern northern Angola and the western
Congo. The Kongolese at 40% were the largest of the African ethnic groups represented amongst
the slaves.

The slaves developed their own religion, a synesthetic mixture of Roman Catholicism and West
African religions known as Vodou, usually called voodoo in English. Vodou provided the slaves
with their own belief system that implicitly rejected their status as slaves. There were conflicts
violently between white colonists and black slaves. There was hatred around, because black people
were very much brutally oppressed by criminals. The French historian Paul Fregosi wrote: "Whites,
mulattos and blacks loathed each other. The poor whites couldn't stand the rich whites, the rich
whites despised the poor whites, the middle class whites were jealous of the aristocratic whites, the
whites born in France looked down upon the locally born whites, mulattoes envied the whites,
despised the blacks and were despised by the whites; free Negroes brutalized those who were still
slaves, Haitian born blacks regarded those from Africa as savages. Everyone-quite rightly-lived in
terror of everyone else...Haiti was hell, but Haiti was rich." To correct Paul, not every Haitian born
black person regarded those from Africa as savages. Many Africans worked together to fight
tyranny. No black African is a savage. They are human beings.

So, I want to make that perfectly clear. Africans are the first humans on this Earth. African peoples
are strong and Africa is Beautiful as Black is Beautiful. Many of these conflicts involved slaves who
had escaped the plantations. Many runaway slaves—called Maroons—hid on the margins of large
plantations, living off the land and what they could get from their former slave owners. Others fled
to towns, to blend in with urban slaves and freed slaves who often
concentrated in those areas. If caught, these runaway slaves would be
severely and violently punished. However, some brutal owners
tolerated petit marronages, or short-term absences from plantations.
Larger groups of runaway slaves lived in the woods away from control.
They often used violent raids on the island’s sugar and coffee
plantations. There were thousands of these groups.

The Maroons were heroic Black Brothers and Sisters. One maroon The Maroon leader
leader who was effect was the charismatic François Mackandal, who
succeeded in unifying the black resistance. A Haitian Vodou priest, François Mackandal
Mackandal inspired his people by drawing on African traditions and rejected slavery and
religions. He united the maroon bands and also established a desired total liberation
network of secret organizations among plantation slaves, leading a for his people in Haiti.
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 resistance after his death.
The Beginning (1789)
There was great social stratification in Haiti before the Haitian Revolution. In 1789, Haiti produced
60% of the world’s coffee, and 40% of the world’s sugar (which was imported by the French and
the British). It was the most profitable possession of the French empire. Saint-Domingue was also
the wealthiest and most financially prosperous colony for the imperialists. The plantation owners
were very brutal. In 1789, there were 40,000 white people in Haiti, there were 28,000 free black
people and biracial people, and black slaves numbered in an estimated 425,000 people. Two thirds
of the slaves were African born and they readily rebelled against tyranny. The death rate in the
Caribbean exceeded the birth rate. So, many Africans were passing away via diseases, etc. in Haiti,
so more people were forced to work the plantations. The slave population declined at an annual
rate of two to five percent, due to overwork, inadequate food and shelter, insufficient clothing and
medical care, and an imbalance between the sexes, with more men than women. Some slaves were
of a creole elite class of urban slaves and domestics, who worked as cooks, personal servants and
artisans around the plantation house. This relatively privileged class was chiefly born in the
Americas, while the under-class born in Africa labored hard, and more often than not, under
abusive and brutal conditions.

Among Saint Domingue’s 40,000 white colonials in 1789, European born French people
monopolized administrative posts. The sugar planters, the grands blancs, were chiefly minor
aristocrats. Most returned to France as soon as possible, hoping to avoid the dreaded yellow fever,
which regularly swept the colony. The lower-class whites, petits blancs, included artisans,
shopkeepers, slave dealers, overseers, and day laborers. Around that time, colonial legislation,
concerned with this growing and strengthening population, passed discriminatory laws that visibly
differentiated these freedmen by dictating their clothing and where they could live. These laws also
barred them from occupying many public offices. Many of these freedmen were also artisans and
overseers, or domestic servants in the plantation houses. Le Cap Français, a northern port, had a
large population of freed slaves, and these men would later become important leaders in the 1791
slave rebellion and later revolution. There were racial conflicts among whites, free people of color,
and enslaved black people.

There were also regional rivalries among the North, South, and the West of Haiti. There were class
and racial tensions. Regional tensions grew. The North was the center of shipping and trading. It
had the largest French elite population. The Plaine du Nord on the northern shore of Saint-
Domingue was the most fertile area with the largest sugar plantation. It was economically
productive. Most of the colony’s trade went through these ports. The largest and busiest port was
Le Cap Francais (or modern day Le Cap Haitien) or the capital of French Saint-Domingue until
1751. By 1751, Port-au-Prince was the capital. In the northern area, enslaved Africans lived in large
groups of workers in relative isolation, separated from the rest of the colony by the high mountain
range known as the Massif du Nord. These slaves would join with urban slaves from LeCap to lead
the 1791 rebellion. It was started in the Northern region.

This area was the seat of power of the grands blancs, the rich white colonists who wanted greater
autonomy for the colony, especially economically. The Western Province grew after the capital was
moved to Port-au-Prince in 1751. The region became more and wealthier in the second half of the
18th century when irrigation projects allowed significant sugar plantation growth. The Southern
Province lagged in population and wealth because it was geographically separated from the rest of
the colony. However, this isolation allowed freed slaves to find profit in trade with British Jamaica,
and they gained power and wealth here. In addition to these interregional tensions, there were
conflicts between proponents of independence, those loyal to France, allies of Spain, and allies of
Great Britain – who coveted control of the valuable colony.
Influence from the French Revolution
The French Revolution changed the landscape of the history of Haiti. In France, the National
Assembly made radical changes in French laws. On August 26, 1789, the French people published
the Declaration of the Rights of Man. It declared all men free and equal. The French Revolution
existed during the time of the Haitian Revolution. Many wealthy whites viewed the French
Revolution as an opportunity to gain independence from France. They wanted elite plantation
owners to take control of the island and create trade regulations that would further their own wealth
and power. Many twists and turns existed during the French Revolution in France. Many complex
events occurred in Saint-Domingue. So, many various classes and parties changed their alignments
numerous times.

The Haitian Revolution soon was a test of the ideology of the French Revolution. It radicalized the
slavery question and forced French leaders to recognize the full meaning of their revolution. The
African population in the island began to hear the agitation for independence by the rich European
planters (the grands blancs) who had resented France’s limitations on the island’s foreign trade. The
Africans mostly allied with the royalists and the British, as they understood that if Saint-Domingue's
independence were to be led by white slave owners, it would probably mean even harsher treatment
and increased injustice for the African population. The plantation owners would be free to operate
slavery as they pleased without the existing minimal accountability to their French peers.

Saint-Domingue’s free people of color (like Julien Raimond) had been actively appealing to France
for civil equality with whites since the 1780’s. Raimond used the French Revolution to make this the
major colonial issue before the National Assembly of France. In October 1790, Vincent Ogé,
another wealthy free man of color from the colony, returned home from Paris, where he had been
working with Raimond. Convinced that a law passed by the French Constituent Assembly gave full
civil rights to wealthy men of color, Ogé demanded the right to vote. When the colonial governor
refused, Ogé led a brief insurgency in the area around Cap Français. He and an army of around
three hundred free blacks fought to end racial discrimination in the area. He was captured in early
1791, and brutally executed by being "broken on the wheel" before being beheaded. Ogé was not
fighting against slavery, but his treatment was cited by later slave rebels as one of the factors in their
decision to rise up in August 1791 and resist treaties with the colonists. The conflict up to this point
was between factions of whites, and between whites and free blacks. Enslaved blacks watched from
the sidelines. Leading 18th-century French writer Count Mirabeau had once said the Saint-
Domingue whites "slept at the foot of Vesuvius", an indication of the grave threat they faced
should the majority of slaves launch a sustained major uprising.

There are similarities between the Haitian Revolution and the French Revolution. The Haitian
Revolution started from below among the majority of the population. Many supporters of the
Haitian revolution were slaves and freed Africans who were treated unequally by society and unjust
laws. Both revolutions involved massive violence since the oppressors refused to willingly give
liberation to people. The Reign of Terror, during the French Revolution, was bloody. Many people
in that time were killed via the guillotine and other machines. The Reign of Terror caused 18,000 to
40,000 to die in France during the French Revolution. In the Caribbean, total casualties were about
162,000 people during the Haitian Revolution. Violence in Haiti was executed by military
excursions, riots, the killing of people, and guerrilla warfare. The Haitian Revolution didn’t wait on
the revolution in France. Haitians fought for their own freedom. The Enlightenment ideals and the
initiation of the French Revolution inspired many in the Haitian Revolution. Yet, the people of
Haiti completed the most successful and comprehensive slave rebellion via their own black power.
Just as the French were successful in transforming their society, so were the Haitians. On April 4,
1792, The French National Assembly granted freedom to slaves in Haiti and the revolution
culminated in 1804 (which caused Haiti to be an independent nation solely of freed peoples). The
activities of the revolutions sparked change across the world. France’s transformation was most
influential in Europe, and Haiti’s influence spanned across every location that continued to practice
slavery. John E. Baur honors Haiti as home of the most influential Revolution in history.
The Enlightenment
The influence of Enlightenment thought existed in the Caribbean region. The Enlightenment is a
philosophical movement that believed in critical thinking, the power of human reason to transform
society, and the usage of logic to define what reality ultimately is. The French writer Guillaume
Raynal attacked slavery in his history of European colonization. Raynal’s Enlightenment philosophy
went deeper than a prediction and reflected many French Enlightenment philosophies including
those of Rousseau and Diderot, even though it was written thirteen years before the “Declaration of
the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.” The declaration, in contrast, highlighted freedom and liberty
but still allowed slaves to be characterized as property. Toussaint Louverture was a key man who
was influenced by the Enlightenment. He was a leader in the Haitian Revolution.

Louverture attempted to bridge this divide between the popular masses and the enlightened few.
Louverture was familiar with Enlightenment ideas within the context of European imperialism. He
attempted to strike a balance between Western Enlightenment thought as a necessary means of
winning liberation, and not propagating the notion that it was morally superior to the experiences
and knowledge of people of color on Saint Domingue. As an extension of himself and his
enlightenment education, Louverture wrote a Constitution for a new society in Saint-Domingue
that abolished slavery. The existence of slavery in society was an incongruity that had been left
unaddressed by numerous European scholars. Louverture took on this inconsistency directly in his
constitution. In addition, Louverture exhibited a connection to Enlightenment scholars through the
style, language and accent of this text. Like Louverture, Jean-Baptiste Belley was also an active
participant in the colony’s insurrection. Belley was a native of Senegal and a former slave from
Saint-Domingue. He lived to 1805 and was a member of the National Convention and the Council
of Five Hundred of France.

The 1791 start of the Haitian Revolution

The 1791 slavery rebellion against slavery occurred in stages. The Enlightenment writer Guillaume
Raynal predicted the slave revolt in the colonies. The French revolutionary government gave
citizenship to wealthy free people of color in May 1791. White plantation owners refused to comply
with this action. Later in about 2 months, isolated fighting broke out between the former slaves and
white people. This increased the tense atmosphere among slaves and grands blancs. On the night of
August 21, 1791, the slaves of Saint Domingue came up in revolt. Thousands of slaves attended a
secret vodou (voodoo) ceremony as a tropical storm came. The lightning and the thunder was taken
as auspicious omens and later that night, the slaves started to attack slave owners and the colony
existed in a civil war.

The signal to start the revolt was given by Dutty Boukman. He was a high priest of vodou and the
leader of the Maroon slaves. The religious ceremony on the night of August 14 occurred as well. In
the next 10 days, slaves took control of the entire Northern Province. This was an unprecedented
slave revolt. Whites controlled only a few isolated fortified camps. The slaves wanted justice. For
 long years, oppression caused many black people to desire retribution against white slave owners. It
or the revolution involved a lot of violence. People’s heads were placed on spikes. Plantation
owners were armed and ready to fight. Nonetheless, within weeks, the number of slaves who
joined the revolt reached some 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. At least 900 coffee plantations were destroyed and the total damage inflicted
over the next two weeks amounted to 2 million francs. In September 1791, the surviving whites
organized themselves and struck back, killing about 15,000 black people in an orgy of revenge. The
slaves wanted freedom from slavery. At this point, many didn’t demand independence from France.
Most of the rebel leaders professed to be fighting for the king of France (who it was alleged had
issued a decree that was suppressed by the governor freeing all the salves). They wanted their rights
as Frenchmen which had been granted by the king.

Courageous Black Women of the Haitian Revolution

Marie Sainte Dedee Sanite Blair was a Catherine Flon is Suzanne Simone Victoria Montou was
Bazille was a very Haitian freedom celebrated for sewing Baptiste Louverture a freedom fighter and
important person of fighter. She was a the first Haitian flag in was the wife of a soldier in the army
the Haitian revolutionary and May 18, 1803. She is Toussaint Louverture. of Jean-Jacques
Revolution. She lieutenant in the army celebrated to this very She was the governor Dessalines during the
admired Dessalines a of Toussaint day. of Saint-Domingue Haitian Revolution.
great deal. Louverture. She was and she has 2 sons, She fought slavery.
married and a martyr who were Placide and Some believe that she
to the Haitian people. Isaac. was Dessalines’ aunt.
She led soldiers into
battle.
In 1792, slave rebels controlled one third of the island. The success of the slave rebellion caused the
newly elected Legislative Assembly in France to realize that this was a serious situation. The
Assembly gave civil and political rights to free men of color in the colony as an economic move (in
March of 1792). Many countries in Europe and in the United States were shocked by the decision.
Yet, the Assembly wanted to stop the revolt. Apart from granting rights to the free people of color,
the Assembly dispatched 6,000 French soldiers to the island. The new governor sent by Paris,
Léger-Félicité Sonthonax was a supporter of the French Revolution who abolished slavery in the
Northern Province of Saint Domingue and had hostile relations with the planters, whom he saw as
royalists. In 1793, France declared war on Great Britain. The white planters in Saint Domingue were
unhappy with Sonthonax. So, these planters made agreements with Great Britain in causing Britain
to have British sovereignty over the colony. They believed that the British would maintain slavery.
The British Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger believed that the success of the slave revolt in
Saint Domigue would inspire slave revolts in the British Caribbean colonies and that taking Saint
Domingue, the richest of the French colonies would be a most useful bargaining chip to have when
the peace negotiations began to end the war, and the interim, occupying Saint Domingue would
mean bringing all of its great wealth into the British treasury. The American journalist James Perry
wrote that the British campaign in Haiti was ironic.

The reason was that the British wasted millions of pounds in their futile campaign. Thousands of
British soldiers died in their campaign. Spain controlled the rest of the island of Hispaniola. They
would fight with the British against France. The Spanish forces invaded Saint Domingue and were
joined by the slave forces. For most of the conflict, the British and Spanish supplied the rebels with
food, ammunition, arms, medicine, naval support, and military advisors. By August 1793, there were
only 3,500 French soldiers on the island. On 20 September 1793, about 600 British soldiers from
Jamaica landed at Jérémie to be greeted with shouts of "Vivent les Anglais! from the French
population. On 22 September 1793, Mole St. Nicolas, the main French naval base in Saint
Domingue surrendered to the Royal Navy peacefully. Everywhere, the British went, they restored
slavery, which made them especially hated by the Haitians. To prevent military disaster, and secure
the colony for republican France as opposed to Britain, Spain, and French royalists, separately or in
combination, the French commissioners Léger-Félicité Sonthonax and Étienne Polverel freed the
slaves in St. Domingue. The decision was confirmed and extended by the National Convention, the
first elected Assembly of the First Republic (1792–1804), on the 4th of February 1794, under the
leadership of Maximilien Robespierre. It abolished slavery by law in France and all its colonies and
granted civil and political rights to all black men in the colonies. The French constitutions of 1793
and 1795 both included the abolition of slavery.

The constitution of 1793 was never applied. Yet, that of 1795 was implemented and lasted until it
was replaced by the consular and imperial constitutions under Napoleon Bonaparte. There were
racial tensions in Saint Domingue. Also, many had welcomed the abolition of slavery with a show
of idealism and optimism. The emancipation of slaves was viewed as an example of liberty for other
countries, much as the American Revolution was meant to serve as the first of many liberation
movements. Danton, one of the Frenchmen present at the meeting of the National Convention,
expressed this sentiment.
In nationalist ways, the abolition of slavery to the French represented the moral triumph of France
over England. Toussaint Louverture stopped working with the Spanish army and soon fought for
independence. The British force that landed in St. Domingue in 1793 was too small to conquer
Haiti. They only held a few coastal places. The French planters were disappointed in this.
Sonthonax refused twice to ultimatums from Commodore John Ford to surrender Port-au-Prince.
In the meantime, a Spanish force under Captain-General Joaquin Garcia y Moreno had marched
into the Northern Province. Back then, Toussaint Louverture (who was the most ablest of the
Haitian general) joined the Spanish. He accepted an officer’s commission in the Spanish Army and
being a knight in the Order of St. Isabella. General Grey from Britain wanted to conquer St.
Domingue. Admiral Sir John Jervis from the UK set sail from Portsmouth on November 26, 1793,
which was in defiance of the well-known rule that only during from September to November was
when one could campaign in the West Indies. Grey came into the West Indies in February of 1794.
He decided to conquer Martinique, St. Lucia, and Guadeloupe. Troops from his force were under
the command of John Whyte. They arrived in St. Domingue in May 19, 1794. Whyte decided rather
attacking the main French bases at Le Cap and Port-de-Paix to march towards Port-au-Prince,
whose harbor was reported to have 45 ships loaded with sugar as the allure of rich resources proved
more enticing. Whyte took Port-au-Prince, but Sonthonax and the French forces were allowed to
leave in exchange for not burning the 45 ships loaded with sugar.

By May 1794, the French forces were severed in two by Toussaint with Sonthonax commanding in
the north and André Rigaud leading in the south. At this point, Toussaint for reasons that remain
obscure, suddenly joined the French and turned against the Spanish, ambushing his allies as they
emerged from attending mass in a church at San Rapheal on May 6, 1794. The Haitians soon
expelled the Spanish from St. Domingue. Toussaint, despite being a former slave, proved to be
more forgiving of the whites in the beginning. In the beginning, he insisted that he merely fighting
to assert the rights of the slaves as black French people to be free and he did not want
independence from France. He urged the surviving whites, including the former slave owners to
stay and work with him in rebuilding St. Domingue. Andre Rigaurd checked the British in the
south. He took the town of Léogâne by storm and driving the British back to Port-au-Prince.
During the course of 1794, most of the British forces were killed by yellow fever.

As within two months of arriving in St. Domingue, the British had lost 40 officers and 600 men to
yellow fever. Of Grey’s 7,000 men, about 5,000 of them died of yellow fever. The Royal Navy
reported losing, “…forty-six masters and eleven hundred men dead, chiefly of yellow fever.” The
British historian Sir John Fortescue wrote "It is probably beneath the mark to say that twelve
thousand Englishmen were buried in the West Indies in 1794." Rigaurd didn’t retake Port-au-
Prince, but on Christmas Day 1794, in a surprise attack, he stormed and retook Tiburon. The
British lost about 300 people. The French took no prisoners. That means that they executed any
British soldier and sailor who surrendered.

At this point, Pitt decided to reinforce failure by launching what he called "the great push" to
conquer St. Domingue and the rest of the French West Indies, sending out the largest expedition
Britain had yet mounted in its history, a force of about 30,000 men to be carried in 200 ships.
Fortescue wrote that aim of London in the first expedition had been to destroy "the power of
France in these pestilent islands...only to discover when it was too late, that they practically
destroyed the British army.” Many British soldiers rebelled, because the journey in the West Indies
was a death sentence. The British executed their plan on November and then December 9, 1795
after the storm passed. General Ralph Abercromby (or the commander of the forces of the great
push in the West Indies) didn’t know where to attack first when he arrived in Barbados on March
17, 1796. He dispatched another force under Mayor General Gordon Forbes to Port-au-Prince.
Forbes failed to get the French held city of Leogane. The French had a ditch to defend the area.
The French commander, the biracial General Alexandre Pétion proved to be an excellent
artilleryman, who used the guns of his fort to sink two of the three ships-of-line under Admiral
Hyde Parker in the harbor, before turning his guns to the British forces; a French sortie led to a
British rout and Forbes retreating back to Port-au-Prince.

When more British troops came into Haiti, more of them died from yellow fever. By June 1, 1796,
of the 1,000 from the Sixty sixth regiment, only 198 had not been infected with yellow fever. Of the
1,000 men of the Sixth-ninth regiment, only 515 were not infected with yellow fever. Abercromby
predicted that at the current rate of yellow fever infection, all of the men from the two regiments
would be dead by November. Ultimately, 10, 000 British soldiers had arrived in Saint Domingue by
June, but besides for some skirmishing near Bombarde, the British remained put in Port-au-Prince
and other coastal enclaves while yellow fever continued to kill them all off. The government much
attracted much criticism about the mounting costs of the expedition to St. Domingue in the House
of Commons, and in February 1797, General John Graves Simcoe arrived to replace Forbes with
orders to pull back the British forces to Port-au-Prince. As the human and financial costs of the
expedition mounted, more and more people in Britain demanded a withdrawal from St. Domingue,
which was devouring money and soldiers while failing to produce the expected profits.

In April 11, 1797, Colonel Thomas Maitland (of the 62nd Foot regiment) landed in Port-au-Prince.
He wrote a letter to his brother that British forces in St. Domingue were annihilated by yellow
fever. There was a lot of unpopularity of the British Army coming into Haiti among British people.
Simcoe used the new British troops to push back the Haitians under Toussaint. In a counter
offensive, Toussaint and Riguard stopped the offensive with Toussaint retaking the fortress at
Mirebalais. On June 7, 1797, Toussaint attacked Fort Churchill in an assaulted that showed his skills
and ferocity. The Haitians faced a storm of artillery. So, the Haitians used ladders on the walls and
were driven back after 4 times with heavy losses. Toussaint was defeated in that battle. Yet, the
British were astonished that Toussaint had turned a group of former slaves with no military
experience into troops whose skills were the equal of a European army. In July 1797, Simcoe and
Maitland sailed to London to advise a total withdrawal from St. Domingue, a thesis that was so
persuasive by this point that in March 1798 Maitland returned with a mandate to withdraw, at least
from Port-au-Prince.

On May 10, 1798, Maitland met with Toussaint to agree to an armistice, and on May 18, the British
had left Port-au-Prince. British morale decreased when news of Toussaint taking Port-au-Prince.
Maitland decided to leave all of St. Domingue. By August 31, 1798, Maitland and Toussaint signed
an agreement where in exchange for pulling out all of St. Domingue (Haiti), Toussaint promised to
not support any slave revolts in Jamaica. Obviously, I disagree with that agreement. Between 1793-
98, the expedition to St. Domingue had cost the British treasury four million pounds and 100,000
men either dead or crippled from the effects of yellow fever.

Now with the British gone, Toussaint turned his attention to Rigaurd (a biracial man). In March of
1797, the Directory had unleashed French privateers against American shipping. This caused the
Quasi war between France and America with the U.S. Navy hunting down the French ships that
were taking American merchantmen. Through the United States was hostile towards Toussaint, the
U.S. Navy agreed to support the Haitians with the frigate USS General Greene command by
Captain Christopher Perry providing fire support to the Haitians as Toussaint laid siege to the city
of Jacmel, held by French forces under the command of Rigaud. On March 11, 1800, Toussaint
took Jacmel and Riguad fled on the French schooner La Diana. Through Toussaint maintained he
was still loyal to France, to all intents and purposes, he ruled Saint Domingue as its leader. It has
recently been estimated that the slave rebellion resulted in the death of 350,000 Haitians and 50,000
European troops.

According to the Encyclopedia of African American Politics, "Between 1791 and independence in
1804 nearly 200,000 blacks died, as did thousands of mulattoes and as many as 100,000 French and
British soldiers." Yellow fever did most of the killing. Geggus points out that at least 3 out of every
5 British troops sent there in 1791-97 died of disease.
The woman to the right was Cécile Fatiman. She was known as the Vodun priestess who led the
gathering at Bwa Kayiman that started the Haitian Revolution. Like Haitian healers & warriors
Tante Toya & Gann Guitonn, she inspired her people. She traveled for years day & night without
rest to the plantations letting trusted initiates know about the great gathering of all warriors to end
slavery to come on August 14th.

Louvertre
Toussaint Louverture was a great leader of the Haitian Revolution. He was self-educated former
domestic slave. Like Jean Francois and Biassou, he initially fought for the Spanish crown in the
1790’s. After the British invaded Haiti, Louverture decided to fight for the French. He wanted them
to free all of the slaves. Sonthonax then proclaimed an end to slavery on August 29, 1792. So,
Louverture worked with a French general, named Etienne Laveaux to ensure that every slave in
Haiti would be free. Louverture abandoned the Spanish army in the east. He brought his forces
over to the French side on May 6, 1794 after the Spanish refused to take steps to end slavery. The
military leadership of Toussaint mostly made up of former slaves. They won concessions from the
British and expelled the Spanish forces. In the end, Toussaint restored control of Haiti to France.
Louverture was a very intelligent, organized, and articulate man. He knew of the island. Toussaint
didn’t want to surrender too much power to France. He ruled Haiti as an autonomous entity.
Louverture overcame a succession of local rivals (like the Commissioner Sonthonax, a French white
man who gained support from many Haitians, angering Louverture; André Rigaud, a free man of
color who fought to keep control of the South in the War of Knives; and Comte d'Hédouville).
Hedouville forced a fatal wedge between Rigaurd and Louverture before he escaped into France.
Toussaint defeated a British expeditionary force in 1798. Also, he led an invasion of neighboring
Santo Domingo (or the Dominican Republic) on December of 1800. He freed the slaves there on
January 3, 1801.

In 1801, Louverture formed a constitution for Saint-Domingue. It said that he would be governor
for life. He wanted a black autonomous and a sovereign black state. In response to this, Napoleon
Bonaparte sent a large expeditionary force of French soldiers and warships to the island. These
forces were led by Bonaparte’s brother in law Charles Leclerc. They wanted to make Haiti a French
colony again. They were under secret instructions by the French to restore slavery in the formerly
Spanish held part of the island at least. Bonaparte ordered that Toussaint was to be treated with
respect until the French forces were established. Once that was done, Toussaint was to be
summoned to Le Cap and be arrested. If he failed to show up, Napoleon wanted Leclerc to wage
war to the death (without mercy to people. He wanted Toussaint’s followers to be shot when
captured). So, France wanted slavery to be restored in the island. The numerous French soldiers
were accompanied by traitorous biracial troops led by Alexandre Pétion and André Rigaud (who
were defeated by Toussaint three years earlier). The French arrived on February 2, 1802 at Le Cap.

The Haitian commander Henri Christophe was ordered by Leclerc to turn over the city to the
French. Christophe refused to do so. Then, the French assaulted Le Cap and the Haitians set the
city afire rather than surrender it. Leclerc sent Toussaint letters promising him: “Have no worries
about your personal fortune. It will be safeguarded for you, since it has been only too well earned
by your own efforts. Do not worry about the liberty of your fellow citizens.” When Toussaint didn’t
show up at Le Cap, Leclerc issued a proclamation on February 17, 1802 that, “General Toussaint
and General Christophe are outlawed; all citizens are ordered to hunt them down, and treat them as
rebels against the French Republic.” Captain Marcus Rainsford, a British Army officer who visited
St. Domingue observed the training of the Haitian Army, writing: “At a whistle, a whole brigade ran
three or four hundred yards, and then, separating, threw themselves flat on the ground, changing to
their backs and sides, and all the time keeping up a strong fire until recalled…This movement is
executed with such facility and precision as totally to prevent cavalry from charging them in bushy
and hilly country.”

Now, Toussaint had to fight the French. In a letter to Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Toussaint outlined
his plans for defeating the French: "Do not forget, while waiting for the rainy reason which will rid
us of our foes, that we have no other resource than destruction and fire. Bear in mind that the soil
bathed with our sweet must not furnish our enemies with the smallest sustenance. Tear up the roads
with shot; throw corpses and horses into all the foundations, burn and annihilate everything in
order that those who have come to reduce us to slavery may have before their eyes the image of the
hell which they deserve.” Dessalines never received the letter as he already taken to the field, evaded
a French column sent to capture him and stormed Léogane. The Haitians burned down Leogane
and killed all of the French with the Trinidadian historian C. L. R. James writing of Dessalines's
actions at Leogane: "Men, women and children, indeed all the whites who came into his hands, he
massacred. And forbidding burial, he left stacks of corpses rotting in the sun to strike terror into the
French detachments as they toiled behind his flying columns." The French, who believed in the
racist view that the Haitians were going to just happily go back to being their slaves as they believed
it was natural for blacks to be the slaves of whites were stunned to learn how much the Haitians
hated them for wanting to reduce them back to a life in chains. A visibly shocked General Pamphile
de Lacroix after seeing the ruins of Leogane wrote: "They heaped up bodies" which "still had their
attitudes; they were bent over, their hands outstretched and beseeching; the ice of death had not
effaced the look on their faces.” Many of the French believed in the racist myth that black people
were naturally submissive to whites.

Leclerc ordered 4 French columns to march on Gonviaves. That was the main Haitian base. One
of the French columns was commanded by General Donatien de Rochambeau, a proud white
supremacist and a supporter of slavery who detested the Haitians for wanting to be free and it was
Rochambueau who Toussaint tried to stop at Ravin-a-Couleuvre, a very narrow gully up in the
mountains that the Haitians had filled with chopped down trees. In the ensuring Battle of Ravine-à-
Couleuvres, after six hours of fierce hand to hand fighting with no quarter given on either side, the
French finally broke through, albeit with heavy losses. During the battle, Toussaint personally took
part in the fighting to lead his men in charges against the French. After losing 800 men, Toussaint
ordered a retreat.

The Haitians tried to stop the French at a British built fort up in the mountains called Crête-à-
Pierrot, a battle that is remembered as a national epic in Haiti. Toussaint took the field. He left
Dessalines in command of Crête-à-Pierrot, who from his fastness could see three French columns
converging on the fort. Dessalines appeared before his men standing atop of a barrel of gunpowder,
holding a lit torch, and saying: "We are going to be attacked, and if the French put their feet in here,
I shall blow everything up", leading his men to reply "We shall die for liberty!" The first of the
French columns appeared before the fort was commanded by General Jean Boudet, whose men
were harassed by skirmishes until they reached a deep ditch that the Haitians had dug. When the
French tried to cross the ditch, Dessalines ordered his men (who were hiding to come out and open
fire) to hit the French with great volley of artillery and musket fire. The attackers experienced heavy
loses. General Boudet himself was wounded and as the French dead and wounded start to pile up in
the ditch, the French retreated. The next French commander who tried to assault the ditch was
General Charles Dugua, who joined shortly afterwards by the column commanded by Leclerc. All
of the French assaults ended in total failure, and after the failure of their last attack, the Haitians
charged the French, cutting down any Frenchmen. General Dugua was killed, Leclerc was wounded
and the French lost about 800 dead.

The final French column to arrive was the cone commanded by the white supremacist
Rochambeau. He used heavy artillery. It knocked out the Haitian artillery. He failed with 300 of his
men killed. After many days, the French continued to bombard and assault the fort. Yet, they were
repulsed every time. The Haitians defiantly sang songs of the French Revolution. The Haitians
celebrated the right of all men to be equal and free. The Haitian psychological warfare was
successful with many French soldiers asking why they were fighting to enslave the Haitians, who
were only asserting the rights promised by the Revolution to make all men free. Despite Bonaparte's
attempt to keep his intention to restore slavery a secret, it was widely believed by both sides that
was why the French had returned to Haiti, as a sugar plantation could only be profitable with slave
labor. Finally after twenty days of siege with food and ammunition running out, Dessalines ordered
his men to abandon the fort on the night of March 24, 1802 and the Haitians slipped out of the fort
to fight another day. Even Rochambeau, who hated all blacks, was forced to admit in a report:
"Their retreat-this miraculous retreat from our trap-was an incredible feat of arms.” The Haitians
left because of shortages of food and ammunition not because of the French army. The French lost
over 2,000 people. After the Battle of Crête-à-Pierrot, the Haitians abandoned conventional warfare
and reverted back to guerilla tactics, making the French hold over much of the countryside from Le
Cap down to the Artibonite valley very tenuous. With March, the rainy season came to St.
Domingue, and as stagnate water collected, the mosquitoes began to breed, leading to yet another
outbreak of yellow fever. By the end of March, 5, 000 French soldiers had died of yellow fever and
another 5, 000 were hospitalized with yellow fever, leading to a worried Leclerc to write in his diary:
"The rainy season has arrived. My troops are exhausted with fatigue and sickness.”

By April 25, 1802, Christophe defected with much of the Haitian Army to the French. Louverture
was promised his freedom if he agreed to integrate his remaining troops into the French army. He
agreed to this on May 6, 1802. The French of course lied. Under the terms of surrender, Leclerc
gave his solemn word that slavery would not be restored in St. Domingue, that blacks could be
officers in the French Army, allowed the Haitian Army to be integrated into the French Army, and
gave Toussaint a plantation at Ennery. Toussaint was later deceived, seized by the French and
shipped to France. He died months later in prison at Fort-de-Joux in the Jura region. Shortly
afterwards, Dessalines rode into Le Cap to submit to France and was rewarded by being made the
governor of Saint-Marc, a place that Dessalines ruled with his customary cruelty. However, the
temporary surrender of Christophe, Toussaint and Dessalines did not mean the end of Haitian
resistance.

Throughout the countryside, guerrilla warfare continued and the French staged mass executions via
firing squads, hanging and drowning Haitians in bags. Rochambeau invented a new means of mass
executions, which he called "fumigational-sulphurous baths" of killing hundreds of black Haitians in
the holds of ships by burning sulphur to make sulphur dioxide to gas them. These actions were long
before Nazis used gas weapons against Jewish people in the Holocaust.
More on the Resistance
Napoleonic rule conquered Haiti temporarily. The black people of Haiti continued to stand up for
freedom. France wanted to re-establish slavery in Haiti. They nearly did so in Guadeloupe.
Therefore, black people revolted in the summer of 1802. Many of the French died as a product of
yellow fever. By the middle of July 1802, the French lost about 10,000 to the disease. By September
of 1802, Leclerc wrote in his diary that he had only 8,000 fit men because yellow fever killed the rest
of the soldiers. Many of the soldiers were Polish people. As many as 5,000 Poles served in the two
demi-brigades in the French Army. The Polish people believed that if they fought for the French,
Bonaparte would reward them by restoring Polish independence. This ended with the Third
Partition of Poland in 1795. Of the 5,000 Poles, about 4,000 of them died because of yellow fever.
Death from yellow fever is horrible. Blood came out of people’s mouths, eyes, and nostrils. Many
Polish people died in battle. The battle of Port Sault saw the Polish Third Battalion fighting about
200 Haitians (who ambushed them with musket fire and by pushing boulders down on them). One
historian noted that "the Poles, rather than spreading out, each man for himself, slowly advanced in
a tightly packed mass which afford an ideal target for the well-protected insurgent rifleman.” Most
the Poles were cut down by the Haitians, which led Rochambeau to remark that one could always
count on the Poles to die without flinching in battle. Some of the Poles came to believe that they
were fighting on the wrong side, as they had joined the French Army to fight for freedom, not
impose slavery, and they defected over to join the Haitians. Dessalines and Petion remained allied
with the French until they switched sides again. They did this on October 1802 and fought against
the French. Leclerc was dying of yellow fever. When he heard of the news, he ordered all of the
black people living in Le Cap to be killed by drowning in them in the harbor. Leclerc died of yellow
fever in November of 1802.
 The Largest cities and towns in Haiti today

Port-au-Prince has 1,234,742 people Carrefour has 442,156 human beings.

Cap-Haitien has 534,815 people. Delmas has 382,920 human beings.

His successor was the Vicomte de Rochambeau. He fought a more brutal campaign than Leclerc.
Rochambeau executed genocide against black people in Haiti. He wanted to kill everybody who was
black. He imported 15,000 attack dogs from Jamaica. These dogs were trained to savage black
people and biracial people. At the Bay of Le Cap, Rochambeau had so many black people drowned
that no one would eat fish from the bay for months afterward as no one wished to eat the fish that
had eaten human flesh. Bonaparte heard that most of his army in Haiti died of yellow fever. The
French only held Port-au-Prince, Le Cap, and Les Cayes. So, he sent about 20,000 reinforcements
to Rochambeau. Dessalines used militant actions. At Le Cap, when Rochambeau hanged 500
blacks, Dessalines replied by killing 500 whites and sticking their heads on spikes all around Le Cap,
so that the French could see what he was planning on doing to them.

Rochambeau's atrocities helped rally many former French loyalists to the rebel cause. Many on both
sides had come to see the war as a race war where no mercy was to be given. Many Haitians burned
French prisoners alive, cut them up with axes, or tied to a board and sawed them into two. 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. He was more concerned about France's European
enemies such as Great Britain and Prussia. With that, he withdrew a majority of the French forces
in Haiti to counter the possibility of an invasion from Prussia, Britain, and Spain on a weakened
France. Napoleon couldn’t send massive reinforcements after the outbreak of war on May 18, 1803
against the British. The Royal Navy sent a squadron under Sir John Duckworth (from Jamaica) to
cruise in the region. They wanted to end communication between the French out spots and to
capture or destroy the French warships based in the colony. There was the blockade of Haiti not
cut the French forces out form reinforcements and supplies from France. The British started to give
arms to the Haitians. Rochambeau was now blocked, filled with soldiers dying of yellow fever, etc.
His army fell to pieces. He soon as James wrote was, “amused himself with sexual pleasures,
military balls, banquets and the amassing of a personal fortune.” He lost interest to command his
army. The Royal Navy squadrons soon blockaded the French held posts of Cap Francais and Môle-
Saint-Nicolas on the Northern coast of the French colony. In the summer of 1803, when war broke
out between the United Kingdom and the French Consulate, Saint-Domingue had been almost
completely overrun by Haitian forces under the command of Jean-Jacques Dessalines. In the north
of the country, the French forces were isolated in the two large ports of Cap Français and Môle-
Saint-Nicolas and a few smaller settlements, all supplied by a French naval force based primarily at
Cap Français.

One October 8, 1803, the French left Port-au-Prince. Rochambeau wanted to concentrate his
forces at Le Cap. Dessalines marched into Port-au-Prince. He was welcomed as a hero by the 100
whites who had chosen to stay behind. Dessalines thanked them all for their kindness and belief in
racial equality, but then he said that the French had treated him as less than human when he was a
slave, and so to avenge his mistreatment, he promptly had the 100 whites all hanged. By November
3, the frigate HMS Blanche captured a supply schooner near Cap Francais, the last hope in
supplying the French forces. Dessalines started to attack the French blockhouses outside of Le Cap
on November 16, 1803.

The last land battle in the Haitian Revolution was

The Battle of Vertières was the last major
battle of the Haitian Revolution on November
18, 1803. The Haitians Jean-Jacques
Dessalines and François Capois led their
troops to defeat the army of ca. 2,000 member
French forces. Capois said Forward! Forward !
(or En avant! En avant!) as a call for victory.
The battlefield was soon engulfed with
thunder and lightning. The French were soon
defeated.
the Battle of Vertieres. It happened on
November 18, 1803. The battle occurred near
Cap-Haitien. Dessalines’ army fought against the
remaining French colonial army under Vicomte
de Rochambeau. The rebels and the freed
revolutionary black soldiers won the battle. Both
sides experienced war. Rochambeau seeing defeat
inevitable procrastinated until the last possible
moment, but eventually was forced to surrender
to the British commander. By the end of the
month the garrison was starving, having reached
the conclusion at the a council of war that
surrender was the only way to escape from this
"place of death.” Commodore Loring refused to
allow the French to sail and agreed to the terms
with Dessalines that permitted them to safely
evacuate provided that they left the port by
December 1. On the night of November 30,
1803, 8,000 French soldiers and hundreds of
white civilians boarded the British ships to take
them away. One of Rochambeau's ships was
almost wrecked while leaving the harbor, but was saved by a British lieutenant acting alone, who not
only rescued the 900 people on board, but also refloated the ship. At Môle-Saint-Nicolas, General
Louis de Noailles refused to surrender and instead sailed to Havana, Cuba in a fleet of small vessels
on December 3, but was intercepted and mortally wounded by a Royal Navy frigate. Then, the few
remaining French held towns in Haiti surrendered Then, they surrendered to the Royal Navy.
Dessalines led the rebellion until its completion. French forces were finally defeated by the end of
1803.

On January 1, 1804, the historic day finally arrived. From the city of Gonaives, Dessalines officially
declared the former colony’s independence. It was reminded Haiti after the indigenous Arawak
name. He lasted from 1804 to 1806. Many changes took place. The independence of Haiti was a
major blow to France and its colonial empire. The French state would take decades to recognize
Haiti. The French retreated and Haiti experienced a new chapter. The Revolution caused a new day.
The Haitians had paid a high price for their freedom, losing about 200,000 dead between 1791-
1803, and unlike the majority of the European dead, who were killed by yellow fever; the majority
of the Haitian dead were the victims of violence. The Haitian nation was a new chapter in black
history. It was the first black Republic in the Western Hemisphere.
A new Republic (in 1804)

The Haitian Revolution ended on January 1, 1804. Dessalines was the new leader. The 1805
Constitution made Haiti a Republic too. Changes existed. The Haitian Revolution war caused Haiti
to be damaged in many of its industries and resources. Its agriculture suffered because of the war.
So, Haiti had to be rebuilt. Many whites were massacred. Dessalines created serfdom in order for
the nation to be rebuilt. Dessalines wanted every citizen to belong to the category of either laborer
or soldier. He wanted the state to rule over the individual and wanted all laborers to be bound to a
plantation. He banned the whip, which was used in slavery. The working day was shortened by a
third. He wanted production of resources. Barred from using the whip, many instead turned to
lianes, which were thick vines abundant throughout the island, to persuade the laborers to keep
working. The countryside was rebuilt and production levels grew, but this system was authoritarian.
He expanded the military since he didn’t want the French to return to try to conquer Haiti. During
his reign, nearly 10% of able-bodied men were in active service. Furthermore, Dessalines ordered
the construction of massive fortifications throughout the island, like the Citadelle Laferrière. Many
commentators believe that this over militarization contributed to many of Haiti's future problems.
In fact, because young fit men were the most likely to be drafted into the army, the plantations were
thus deprived of the workforce needed to function properly. The Presidency of Jean-Pierre Boyer
was different.
 Components of the Haitian
Revolution
It was part of the Atlantic During this time, the French imposed an unjust action. The
Revolutions and its occurred during French forced the Haitians to pay for reparations. This was
the French Revolutionary Wars plus about 150 million francs in 1825. It was reduced in 1838 to
the Napoleonic War 60 million francs. This was done in exchange for French
recognition of its independence. Boyer was wrong to believe
that this deal was necessary to protect a French invasion.
This policy damaged the Haitian economy. Also, French
warships anchored near Haiti. The Haitian treasury was
bankrupted. Boyer invaded the Dominican Republic in
February 1822. It caused an occupation lasting 22 year.
Colonialism ended in 1804. Later, the affranchi élite, who
continued to rule Haiti while the formidable Haitian army
kept them in power. France continued the slavery system in
French Guiana, Martinique, and Guadeloupe. Before 1804,
This image showed the Battle of San many black people were massacred by racists like
Domingo in a painting by January Rochambeau and Leclerc. The massacre in 1804 was done to
Suchodolski. It shows a struggle whites. By the end of April 1804, some 3,000 to 5,000
between Polish troops in French persons had been killed practically eradicating the country's
service and the black people plus the white population. Dessalines had specifically stated that
freed revolutionary soldiers. France is "the real enemy of the new nation." This allowed
certain categories of whites to be excluded from massacre
Commanders and leaders
who had to pledge their rejection to France: the Polish
The Right Side The Wrong Side
soldiers who deserted from the French army; the group of
*Dutty Boukman *Viscount de
German colonists of the Nord-Ouest (North-West)
Blanchelande
*Georges *Leger-Felicie
department of Haiti who were inhabitants before the
Biassou Sonthonax
revolution; French widows who were allowed to keep their
*Toussaint *Napoleon property; select male Frenchmen; and a group of medical
Louverture Bonaparte doctors and professionals. Reportedly, also people with
*Jean-Jacques *Charles Leclerc connections to Haitian notables were spared, as well as the
Dessalines women who agreed to marry non-white men. In the 1805
*Francois Capois *Vincomte de constitution that declared all its citizens as black, it
Rochambeau specifically mentions the naturalizations of German and
Result: Haiti gaining independence Polish peoples enacted by the government, as being exempt
in 1804 being the first black from Article XII that prohibited whites ("non-Haitians;"
Republic of the Americas. foreigners) from owning land. The Haitian Revolution
changed the world forever. I am glad that Haiti became
independent. I don’t agree with killing innocent human life. I reject anti-black racism and
oppression of any form. Haiti today is still fighting for real justice too.
The Global Impact
The impact of the Haitian Revolution has been global. The Haitian Revolution inspired further
slave rebellions in America and in the British colonies. The biggest slave revolt in American history
was the 1811 German Coast Uprising in Louisiana. The slave rebellion in Louisiana was put down.
The slaves received such a severe punishment that no contemporary news reports about it exist.
Many abolitionists brought the issue of slavery in public discourses. Black people continued to fight
against slavery worldwide. In America, discussions about slavery continued. Thomas Jefferson was a
slaveholder. He refused to establish diplomatic relations with Haiti. The United States didn’t even
recognize Haiti until 1862. The U.S. imposed an embargo on trade with Haiti until 1862. Jefferson
was so racist that he wanted Haiti to fail as a new republic. Many white refugees from Haiti from
1791 traveled into American cities like Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York City, and Charleston. The
immigration intensified after the journée (crisis) of June 20, 1793, and soon American families
began to raise money and open up their homes to help exiles in what became the United States' first
refugee crisis. While some white refugees blamed the French Revolutionary government for
sparking the violence in Haiti, many supported the Republican regime and openly expressed their
support of the Jacobins.

Some historical information showed that refugees who supported the French Revolution had an
easier time to go into America. American slave-owners commiserated with the French planters.
Many white French and free people of color came into Louisiana from Saint Domingue. Louisiana
back then already had a large French speaking, biracial, and black populations. Many racists feared
slavery rebellions in America on the scale of the Haitian Revolution. In 1807 Haiti was divided into
two parts, the Republic of Haiti in the south, and the Kingdom of Haiti in the north. Land could
not be privately owned; it reverted to the State through Biens Nationaux (national bonds), and no
French whites could own land. The remaining French settlers were forced to leave the island.
The Haitian State owned up to 90% of the land and the other 10% was leased in 5-year intervals.
Napoleon didn’t want to regain Haiti again because of the disease and the bloody war. He sold
Louisiana to the Americas and gave up rebuilding a French empire in the Western Hemisphere.
There never again was such a large-scale slave rebellion. Napoleon reversed the French abolition of
slavery in law, constitution, and practice, which had occurred between 1793 and 1801, and
reinstated slavery in the French colonies in 1801–1803—which lasted until 1848.The Haitian
Revolution inspired anti-slavery efforts in America, ended Napoleonic rule in the Americas, etc.
Also, in Latin America, independence movement grew and new Latin American nations were free
from Spanish and Portuguese domination throughout the 1800's also.

Prominent Locations in Modern Day Haiti

This is the Saut- The Labadee beach and village in Haiti is gorgeous This is a market place in Cap
d’Eau Waterfall and is a famous tourist location on the nation of Haiti. Haitien.
in Haiti.

Religion in Haiti according to the 2010

Pew Research Center
3%

Catholicism
10.6 %
Protestantism

Unaffiliated
29.6 % 56.8 % Other
She is Sister Bayyinah Bello. She is a professional and a scholar of the Haitian Revolution. For
years, she has done philanthropic work to help Haitian people and others worldwide. She is a
Haitian historian, a teacher, and a humanitarian. She has lived in Africa for years too. To this
very day, she has worked hard to help Haitian people.

Legacy
The Haitian Revolution changed history forever. It caused slavery to end in Haiti. It motivated
black people in the Americas and worldwide to defeat slavery. It was very bloody. The Haitian
Revolution didn’t exist in one phase. It existed in multiple phases. Many European powers wanted
to control Haiti for geopolitical reasons, but the Haitian people defeated them all. Heroic black
men and heroic black women stood up against Western imperialist tyranny. One of the most brutal
forms of slavery in the Americas existed in Haiti. Many black slaves in Haiti were brutalized with
such a ferocious nature that this caused more death. Black people were determined to be free. The
Haitian Revolution had many leaders and it involved a collective effort among the Haitian people
to get their independence from French. They or the Haitians formed their independent republic
on 1804. Afterwards problems did exist. The French forced Haitians to pay them, which is wrong.
The U.S. executed an embargo against Haiti for a while. The embargo crippled much of the
Haitian economy as imports and exports are crucial in the development of any strong economy.
The U.S. even occupied Haiti militarily during the 20th century. The recent Earthquake in Haiti
(on the date of January 12, 2010 with a magnitude of 7.0) has harmed people too. Also, it is
important to recognize the determination of the Haitian people back then and today.
Sister Bayyinah Bello is the founder of an organization for historical research called Fondation
Marie-Claire Heureuse Félicité Bonheur Dessalines, popularly known as Fondasyon Félicité (FF),
named after Marie-Claire Heureuse Félicité Bonheur Dessalines the Empress consort of Haiti and
wife of revolutionary leader of Haiti Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Soon after the 2010 Haiti earthquake,
the Friends of Fondation Félicité was set up, an associated not-for-profit organization that is
helping Haitian people to rebuild their own country, and raises funds for grass-root projects on the
island.

We won’t back down. We always love Haiti forever.

By Timothy