Haitian Revolution

17891789 -1804

French

(Colony of St. Domingue)

Spanish

France took western 1/3 of island from Spain

Social Structure in Haiti

Whites (20,000) Gens de Couleur (30,000)

Slaves (500,000)

 Pre-Revolution:
French colonists brought African slaves to develop large sugar and coffee plantations By 1788 - 500,000 slaves and 60,000 colonists (outnumbered 8 : 1)

Haiti the richest colony in the WORLD

Developments 1789
French Revolution begins Declaration of Rights of Man issued by National Assembly White planters (Grands Blancs) want home rule because of French Revolution Gens de couleur (free blacks)
want equality (liberty, equality, fraternity) but did not get their promised citizenship

WHY is France a catalyst for the Haitian Revolution?

 Vincent Og (un gen de couleur), goes to France, wants rights for free blacks Back in Haiti, demand end to discrimination. Og is killed by whites (chained to wagon wheel and repeatedly run over). French National Assembly allows colonial whites to determine political life in Haiti.

1790

1791
French Assembly gives all men with two free parents full rights. (This means some of the gens de couleur) Whites consider separation from France. Leading French writer Count Mirabeau said the Saint-Domingue whites "slept at the foot of Vesuvius alluding to the grave threat they faced should the majority of slaves launch a sustained major uprising.

A Rallying Cry
Coute la libert il pale nan coeur nous tous Listen to the voice of liberty which speaks in the hearts of all of us
(Dutty Boukman delivered in patois)

 Slave revolt

1791: CRISIS

Dutty Boukman (Dirty Book Man because he was accused of teaching slaves to read) leads thousands of Maroons (runaway slaves) to attack plantations across the colony killing 1500. Boukman is killed and the revolt falters until Toussaint organizes them.

Toussaint becomes a military leader

After reading Julius Caesar - insisted on discipline and restricted wholesale slaughter

Whites decide to fight for independence Assembly revoked rights given to men of color with two free parents.

Toussaint Brda

This Image, of Toussaint, was created by a French artist after years of French vilification.

(Napoleon or George Washington like pose)

The Revolution through the eyes of modern artists

Slave Revolt

1792
French Assembly and Louis XVI grant all free men of color full citizenship rights

1793
Whites imprisoned, gens de couleur take power Toussaint controls most of colony French National Convention abolishes slavery in an attempt to pacify island.

1796
Toussaint is distrustful of all foreigners and wants only black leadership on island. Gens de couleur have gained rights but lost property.what to do; should they support France in hopes of regaining property (slaves) or support revolt in hopes of gaining power?

1799
War of the Castes
Gens de couleur support France (want slaves back) Toussaints army turns on gens de couleur Toussaint asks president John Adams for help Adams fears Britain and France in the Americas so: Alliance with U.S. Adams sends arms and ships to defeat gens de couleur Toussaint will not allow French to use island as a base.

 Toussaint gets nickname Louverture (break through enemy lines) from the French Some of Toussaints officers had fought in American Revolution Jefferson reverses Adams policy calling Toussaints army cannibals (Jefferson was from the South, but didnt he write the Declaration of Independence?) French British and Spanish armies incompetent, (especially French.) Napoleons coup dtat in France (internal weakness) -He wants to reestablish slavery and colonialism

1799

What to do.. What to do!

e plus ca change ... le 18001800 -Extreme Action L plus ca reste la mme

The War of Knives between Toussaint & rival leader, Rigaud Toussaint becomes dictator Needs exports for revenue
Re-imposes plantation system, sugar means money for Haiti. Uses freed slaves as forced labor (sounds like slavery to me) It doesnt work

1802
Toussaint kidnapped and is taken to France - dies of neglect and starvation in jail

 Revolution is carried on by

1802

Jean-Jacques Dessalines Both sides resort to atrocities

Torture, rape, mutilations-A war of racial extermination

Haitians hang French prisoners

U.S. and Britain fear slave revolt Newspapers cover the murder of the French but not the blacks British delay abolishing the slave trade

Blacks who had sided with France turn against French French re-establish slavery on nearby island of Martinique

 Napoleon, who was going to use Haiti as a base to invade Mexico and create an American Empire, sells the Louisiana Territory to the United States in April 1803 French on island surrender to the British afraid to surrender to Toussaints army

1803

1804: Return to Normalcy

Dessalines officially declares independence, renaming "Haiti" after the indigenous Arawak name for mountain land redistribution ends the plantation system, France demands 150 million francs (21 Billion $ in todays money), the debt will be paid off in 1947. Haiti, the richest colony in the world, becomes one of the poorest nations on earth.

Dessalines rips the white from the flag.

"The Heroes" by Smith Georges (Toussaint Louverture, Dessalines, Petion, Christophe, Boukman)

First president

King of Northern Haiti!

Emperor of Haiti

 Throughout the southern United States, white slave-owners begin to build "slave shelters" to hide in should the slaves revolt.

Ripping the white from the flag As he has ripped the whites from Haiti

L'Union Fait La Force ("Unity Makes Strength.")

Compare the French and Haitian Revolutions

Stages Class aspirations Class participation Role of outside forces