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The circumstances in Haitian society that made the revolution inevitable by

1791.
In the Western Hemisphere the Haitian Revolution has often been described as the largest
and most successful slave rebellion. Consisting of several revolutions going on simultaneously,
slaves initiated the rebellion in 1791 and by 1803 they had succeeded in ending not just slavery
but French control over the colony. However, the Haitian revolution was much more complex.
These revolutions were influenced by the French revolution of 1789, which represented a new
concept of human rights, universal citizenship, and participation in government.
In the 18th century, Saint Dominigue, as Haiti was then known, became France, the most
productive colonial economy in the world. Being export driven, dominated by agriculture and
trade. Saint-Domingue, with its tropical climate, was developed as a coffee- and sugar-producing
colony, and sustained many large, profitable plantations and enslaved labor force.
Haiti held a slave population of about 90 percent. African slaves were taken to the island
in the Atlantic slave trade. The remainder of the population consisted of peoples of European
ancestry and of mixed heritage, defined in the law of the colony as white or gens de couleur
(people of color), respectively.
In 1789 when the French revolution broke out, there were five distinct sets of interest
groups in the colony. They consist of the white planters -- who owned the plantations and the
slaves, the petit blancs, who were artisans, shopkeepers and teachers. A few slaves were also
owned by some of them. Together they numbered 40,000 of the colonys residents. Many of the
whites on Saint Dominigue began to support an independence movement that began when
France imposed steep rates on the items imported into the colony. The plantation owners were
extremely disappointed with France because they were forbidden to switch with whatever other

country. The white population of Saint-Dominigue did not have any representation in France.
Both the planters and petit blancs remained committed to the institution of slavery despite their
cries for independence.
Of African descent there were three remaining groups: there were those who were free,
those who were slaves, and those who had run away. In 1789, there were approximately 30,000
free black people. Half of them were mulatto who were wealthier than the petit blancs. The slave
population on the other hand was close to 500,000 and the runaway slaves or the Maroons as
they were sometimes called; had fled deep into the mountains of Saint Dominigue where they
lived off self-sufficiency farming ( a form of farming in which nearly all the crops or livestock
raised are used to maintain the farmer and his family, leaving little surplus for sale or trade).
Haiti had a history of slave rebellions; the slaves were never willing to submit to their
status and with their strength in numbers (10 to 1). Colonial officials and planters did all that was
possible to control them. Despite the harshness and cruelty of Saint Dominigue slavery, there
were slave rebellions before 1791 which was mentioned in the above statement. One plot
involved the poisoning of masters.
The Haitian revolution had started for several reasons, for instance: the collapse of the
French monarchy, the existence of a large mixed race-class and the extreme conditions in St
Domingue. French administrators governed the island. In 1788, because of the Spanish invasion,
there were harsh labor policies, and introduction of infectious diseases from Afroeurasia, the
entire native Indian population had died out. The slaves endured many forms of abuse. Because
this legally authorized violence, worsened slaves poor living conditions resulted in a high death
rate and the continuous supply of slaves was necessary. Here the plantation system grew, Saint-

Domingues colonists continuously expanded the number of slaves and the colonial economy
fueled the social imbalance that led to the revolution.
The French Revolution was another significant element that shaped the Haitian
Revolution. In fact, the French Revolution had a deep effect on the logical foundations of
Haitian society. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, of 1789, led several
mixed-race leaders, including Vincent Og to petition the French National Constituent Assembly
for equal rights. The National Constituent Assembly declared that the gens de couleur libres had
the right to vote, on May 15, 1791. Although it did not apply to slaves, the white colonists
resistance to this new law was quoted by the rebels as one of the causes of the 1791 slave revolt
that eventually became the Haitian Revolution.
Vincent Og, one of a growing number of free men of colour, was well educated, and was
also a comparatively wealthy mulatto. He championed the rights of free mulattoes and the
emancipation of slaves in Haiti. His official plea for equal status before the National Assembly
at the beginning of the French Revolution failed.
Og returned to Haiti in 1790. When the French governor refused to remove restrictions,
he attempted to start a revolt amongst the mixed race population of St-Domingue. Because Og
ignored the advice of one of his associates to draw in the blacks, he was easily defeated. Og was
convicted of treason. After revolts by the gens de couleur, it resulted in a wave of racial
oppression. The slave population leapt into the gap left by the political crisis, staging a
coordinated rebellion in August 1791.
In 1794, the revolution led to the complete abolition of slavery in St Domingue. From
colonial dictatorship and declared an end to slavery, Toussaint Louverture a domestic slave who
became a steward of all the livestock on his masters estate, led a revolutionary campaign that

liberated his homeland in the Caribbean. Toussaint, a self-educated former slave, defeated
Europes best-trained forces, including armies of France, England and Spain. Haiti then became
the first Republic in the world to declare all men and women free and equally entitled to govern
their own lives.
Napoleon Bonaparte seized power in France in 1799, he tried to reconstruct the French
colonial empire. In 1802, he sent 20,000 troops to St. Domingue to overthrow the government of
Toussaint LOuverture and re-instate slavery on the island. Toussaint LOuverture was deceived,
captured and exiled to France, where he died in prison 1803. However, the rebels continued to
fight and by the end of 1803 the French forces were defeated. On January 1, 1804, President Jean
Jacques Dessalines declared the birth of the free republic of Haiti.
Haiti proclaimed its independence from France in 1804, as a republic. As all of the
groups in the revolution except the slaves conceived of liberty and equality in terms of their own
situation, none of them had supported the abolition of slavery. It was this, however, that the slave
population demanded. The whites, both grands and petits blancs, wanted to hold on to white
privilege. The rebels accordingly drove them off the island. The gens de couleur wanted to keep
the right to own slaves. They were also driven off or deprived of their slave property, though
some of them stayed and retained economic and social power.
The Haitian revolution abolished slavery on the island. It was the first major successful
slave revolt in the Atlantic world, and LOuverture became known among the slave population of
the Americas as a liberating hero. The Haitian revolution also gave strength to the anti-slavery
movement among European peoples. In the following decades, abolitionists used the example of
Haiti to convince slave owners that using free labor was, if nothing else, a good way to avoid a
bloody uprising.

The newly-independent Haiti, however, faced two immediate economic problems. On the
one hand, slave-owning societies, like the United States, placed an embargo on Haiti, fearing that
its example would encourage other slave revolts. This restriction deprived Haiti of many of its
former markets. On the other hand, the former slaves proved very unwilling to continue
plantation labor, which they very sensibly associated with slavery. This led to continuing class
tension among those who remained on the island and a rapid transition from democracy to
dictatorship.
The root of the Haitian revolution was the fundamental imbalance in Haitian society.
Slaves made up the vast majority of the population and were oppressed on a daily basis in the
most naked ways and thoroughly deprived economically in a system that produced great wealth.
For this slave population, the most pressing issue was the termination of slavery and the social
inequality it entailed. As the colony was 90 percent slave, this issue was inevitably the focus of
the revolution.

UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTHERN CARIBBEAN


MARACAS ROYAL ROAD, MARACAS, ST. JOSEPH.

The Haitian Revolution

An Assignment
Presented in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Course
HIST147: WEST INDIAN HISTORY

INSTRUCTOR: TShana Thomas-Francique


By
Carlene Stewart
8th March, 2014

Approval...................

References

www.marriam-webster.com
by William Loren Katz

Toussaint LOuverture and the Haitian Revolution

http://www.saylor.org/courses/hist303/#4.1

Thomas O. Ott, The Haitian Revolution 1789-1804 (Knoxville,


Tennessee:University of Tennessee, 1973); http://www.pbs.org

http://www.fold3.com/page/1441_the_haitian_revolution_of_17911803/

Corbett, B. The Haitian Revolution of 1791-1803: An Historical Essay in


Four Parts retrieved from
www2.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/history/revolution/revolution1.htm

by Kona Shen at Brown University December 9, 2008 History of Haiti 14921805: Slave Resistance Gains Momentum retrieved from
http://library.brown.edu/haitihistory/4.html

The Haitian Revolution


scholar.library.miami.edu/slaves/san_domingo_revolution/.../david.html

Sutherland, Claudia E. (2007-2011) University of Washington


http://www.blackpast.org/gah/haitian-revolution-1791-1804#sthash.78AMLuLB.dpuf

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