Haitian Revolution 999895 225936960 2008-07-16T02:44:17Z WikiDreamer Bot 7221255 robot Modifying: [[nl:Haïtiaanse Revolutie]] {{Infobox Military Conflict |conflict=Haitian Revolution |image=[[Image:San Domingo.jpg|300px|]] |caption=''Battle on Santo Domingo'', a painting by [[January Suchodolski]] depicting a struggle between Polish troops in French service and the Haitian rebels |date=[[August 22]], [[1791]] — [[January 1]], [[1804]] |place=[[Haiti]] |casus= |territory= |result=Haiti wins independence from France |combatant1=[[Haiti]] |combatant2={{flagicon|France}} [[First French Republic|France]]<br>[[Polish Legions (Napoleonic period)|Polish Legions]] |commander1=[[Toussaint Louverture]]<br>[[Jean-Jacques Dessalines]] |commander2=[[Charles Leclerc]]<br>[[Donatien-Marie-Joseph de Vimeur, vicomte de Rochambeau|Vicomte de Rochambeau]]<br>[[Napoleon Bonaparte]] |strength1=Regular army: <55,000,<br>Volunteers: <100,000 |strength2=Regular army: 60,000,<br>86 warships and frigates |casualties1=Military deaths: unknown,<br>Civilian deaths: <100,000 |casualties2=Military deaths: 57,000 (37,000 combat; 20,000 yellow fever)<br>Civilian deaths: ~25,000 |casualties3= |notes= }} {{Campaignbox French Revolutionary Wars}} {{History of Haiti}} [[Image:Haitian revolution.jpg|thumb|right|Battle at "Snake Gully" in 1802]] The '''Haitian Revolution''' (1791–1804) was the most successful of African [[slave rebellions]] in the Western Hemisphere. It established [[Haiti]] as a free [[republic]] ruled by blacks, the first of its kind. At the time of the revolution, Haiti was known as [[Saint-Domingue]] and was a colony of [[France]]. Through the revolution, people of African ancestry freed themselves from French colonization and from [[slavery]]. Although hundreds of rebellions occurred during the slave era, only the 1791 revolt on Saint-Domingue succeeded in permanently liberating an entire island.<ref name="brief">{{cite book | first=Jan | last=Rogozinski | year= 1999 | title= A Brief History of the Caribbean | edition= Revised | publisher=Facts on File, Inc. | location=New York | pages= pp 85, 116–118, 133, 158, 164-167, 169 | id= ISBN 0-8160-3811-2 }}</ref> Haiti was the first republic led by people of African descent in modern history. It went directly from being a French colony to self-governance through a process that has had lasting effect on the nation. Slaveholders had established a system using violence and force in controlling the majority. Unfortunately leaders rising in the nascent black republic adopted similar means to keep control. An elite comprised of educated free people of color took control of political and economic power.<ref name="kreyol-001">{{cite web |url=http://www.kreyol.com/history001.html |title=Haiti: Historical Setting |publisher= |accessdate=2006-11-27 }}</ref> Historians traditionally identify the catalyst to revolution as a particular [[Vodou]] service in August 1791 performed at [[Bois Caïman]] by [[Dutty Boukman]], a priest.<ref name="webster1">{{cite web |url=http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/history/revolution/revolution1.htm |title=Prelude to the Revolution: 1760 to 1789 |publisher= |accessdate=2006-11-28 }}</ref> But a number of complex events set the stage that culminated in the most significant revolt in the history of enslaved Africans. ==Background== The riches of the Caribbean depended on the Europeans' increasing taste for sugar, which plantation owners traded for provisions from [[North America]] and manufactured goods from [[Europe]]. Starting in the 1730s, French engineers constructed complex [[irrigation system]]s to increase [[sugarcane]] production. By the 1740s Saint-Domingue, together with [[Jamaica]], had become the main supplier of the world's sugar. Sugar production depended on the extensive manual labor provided by enslaved Africans in the harsh Saint-Domingue [[plantation|colonial plantation]] economy. The white planters who derived their wealth from the sale of sugar knew they were greatly outnumbered by slaves and lived in fear of slave rebellion.<ref name="brief"/> In 1758, the white landowners began passing legislation that set restrictions on the rights of other groups of people until a rigid caste system was defined. Most historians have classified the people of the era into three groups. One was the white colonists, or ''blancs''. A second was the free blacks (usually mixed-race, known as mulattoes or ''[[gens de couleur]]'', [[free people of color]]). These tended to be educated, literate and often served in the army or as administrators on plantations. Many were children of white planters and overseers by slave mothers. They often received education or artisan training, sometimes received property from their fathers, and freedom. The third group, outnumbering the others by a ratio of ten to one, was made up of mostly African-born [[slave]]s who spoke a patois of French and West African languages known as [[Haitian Creole language|Creole]].<ref name="kreyol-003">{{cite web |url=http://www.kreyol.com/history003.html |title=Haiti - French Colonialism |publisher= |accessdate=2006-11-27 }}</ref> White colonists and black slaves frequently had violent conflicts. Gangs of runaway slaves, known as [[Maroon (people)|maroons]], lived in the woods away from control. They often conducted violent raids on the island's sugar and coffee plantations. The success of these attacks established a black Haitian martial tradition of violence and brutality to effect political ends.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kreyol.com/history004.html |title=The Haitian Revolution - The Slave Rebellion of 1791 |publisher=kreyol.com |accessdate=2007-08-22 }} </ref> 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 [[Religion in Africa|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.<ref name="kreyol-004">{{cite web |url=http://www.kreyol.com/history004.html |title=The Slave Rebellion of 1791 |publisher= |accessdate=2006-11-27 }}</ref><ref name="brief">{{cite book | first=Jan | last=Rogozinski | year= 1999 | title= A Brief History of the Caribbean | edition= Revised | publisher=Facts on File, Inc. | location=New York | pages= pp 85, 116–117, 164–165 | id= ISBN 0-8160-3811-2 }}</ref> ==Situation in 1789== In 1789 [[Saint-Domingue]], producer of 40 percent of the world's sugar, was the most valuable colony on earth. The lowest class of society were enslaved blacks, who outnumbered whites and people of color by eight to one.<ref name="brief">{{cite book | first=Jan | last=Rogozinski | year= 1999 | title= A Brief History of the Caribbean | edition= Revised | publisher=Facts on File, Inc. | location=New York | pages= pp 164–165 | id= ISBN 0-8160-3811-2 }}</ref> The slave population on the island totaled at least 500,000 by 1789, almost half of the one million slaves in the Caribbean.<ref>Herbert Klein, Transatlantic Slave Trade, Pg. 32-33</ref> They were mostly African-born. The death rate in the Caribbean exceeded the birth rate, so imports of enslaved Africans continued. The slave population declined at an annual rate of two to five percent, due to overwork; inadequate food, shelter, clothing and medical care; and an imbalance between the sexes, with more men than women.<ref>Tim Matthewson, A Pro-Slavery Foreign Policy: Haitian-American Relations During the Early Republic, (Praeger: Westport, Ct. and London, 2003) Pg. 3</ref> 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 under abusive conditions. The [[Nord Department|Plaine du Nord]] on the northern shore of Saint-Domingue was the most fertile area with the largest sugar plantations. It was the area of most economic importance. Here 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''. This area was the seat of power of the ''grand blancs'', the rich white colonists who wanted greater autonomy for the colony, especially economically.<ref name="caribbean">{{cite book | first=Franklin W. | last= Knight | year= 1990 | title= The Caribbean: The Genesis of a Fragmented Nationalism | edition= 2nd | publisher=Oxford University Press | location=New York | pages= pp 204–208 | id= ISBN 0-19-505441-5 }}</ref> Among Saint-Domingue’s 40,000 white [[colonial]]s in 1789, European-born Frenchmen monopolized administrative posts. The sugar planters, the ''grand 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.<ref>C.L.R. James, Black Jacobins (Vintage, 1989) Pg. 29</ref> The lower class whites, ''petit blancs'', included artisans, shopkeepers, slave dealers, overseers, and day laborers. Saint-Domingue’s free people of color, the ''[[gens de couleur]]'', numbered more than 28,000 by 1789. Many of them were also artisans and overseers, or domestic servants in the big houses. <ref>Robert Heinl, ''Written in Blood: The History of the Haitian People'', New York: Lanham, 1996, p. 45</ref> In addition to class and racial tension between whites, free people of color, and enslaved blacks, the country was polarized by regional rivalries between the [[Nord Department|North]], [[Sud Department|South]], and [[Ouest Department|West]]. There were also conflicts between proponents of independence, those loyal to [[France]], allies of [[Spain]], and allies of [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]] - who coveted control of the valuable colony. ==Impact of French Revolution== {{Further|[[French Revolution]]}} In France, the majority of the Estates General, an advisory body to the King, constituted itself as the [[National Assembly]], made radical changes in French laws, and on [[August 26]], [[1789]], published the [[Declaration of the Rights of Man]], declaring all men free and equal. The [[French Revolution]] shaped the course of the conflict in Saint-Domingue and was at first widely welcomed in the island. So many were the twists and turns in the leadership in France, and so complex were events in Saint-Domingue, that various classes and parties changed their alignments many times.{{Fact|date=December 2007}} The African population on the island began to hear of the agitation for independence by the rich European planters, the ''grands blancs'', who had resented France's limitations on the island's foreign trade. This class mostly allied with the [[royalists]] and the British, as Africans understood that if [[Saint-Domingue]]'s independence were to be led by white slave masters, it would probably mean even harsher treatment and increased injustice for the African population as the plantation owners would be free to inflict slavery as they pleased without even minimal accountability to their French peers.<ref name="caribbean"/> Saint-Domingue's [[free people of color]], most notably [[Julien Raimond]], had been actively appealing to France for full civil equality with whites since the 1780s. Raimond used the [[French Revolution]] to make this the major colonial issue before the [[French National Assembly]]. 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 [[National Convention|Constitutent 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 Francais]]. He was captured in early 1791, and brutally executed.<ref name="kreyol-004"/> 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 [[colonist]]s. The conflict up to this point was between factions of whites, and between whites and free coloreds. Enslaved blacks watched from the sidelines.<ref name="brief"/> Leading French writer [[Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau|Count Mirabeau]] had once said the San Domingue whites "slept at the foot of [[Vesuvius]]".<ref>Hochschild, Adam ''Bury the Chains:The British Struggle to Abolish Slavery'' (2006)</ref> An indication of the grave threat they faced should the majority of slaves launch a sustained major uprising. ==1791 slave rebellion== No one expected the slaves to participate in the rebellion. But suddenly on [[August 22]], [[1791]], a great slave uprising plunged the country into civil war. Thousands of slaves in the fertile [[Nord Department|Plaine du Nord]] region rose up to take vengeance on their masters and to fight for their liberty. Within the next ten days, slaves had taken control of the entire northern province in an unprecedented slave revolt that left the whites' controlling only a few isolated fortified camps. Within the next two months as the violence escalated, the rebellious slaves killed 2,000 whites and burned or destroyed 280 sugar plantations.<ref name="brief">{{cite book | first=Jan | last=Rogozinski | year= 1999 | title= A Brief History of the Caribbean | edition= Revised | publisher=Facts on File, Inc. | location=New York | pages= p. 167 | id= ISBN 0-8160-3811-2 }}</ref> Within a year, the island was in revolutionary chaos. Slaves burnt the [[plantations]] where they had been forced to work, and killed masters, overseers and other whites.<ref name="caribbean"/> French authorities were initially confident that they could put down the rebellion, as they had put down smaller revolts in the past.<ref>Hochschild p.258</ref> Larger disturbances began as leaders [[Jean François]] and [[Georges Biassou]] led the slave uprising to align with the pro-royalist [[Spain|Spanish]] authorities in [[Santo Domingo]]. The [[History of Haiti#The Great Slave Rebellion of 1791|slave rebellion]] that had begun on the plantations in the north spread chaos across the colony. Having initially refused to abolish slavery, eventually, on [[April 4]], [[1792]], the French legislature proclaimed the equality of all free people in the French colonies regardless of color. They sent a commission led by [[Léger-Félicité Sonthonax]] to Saint-Domingue to ensure that the colonial authorities complied.<ref name="brief"/> The colony's Governor was recalled to France and guillotined.<ref>Hochschild p.267</ref> ==Leadership of Toussaint== One of the most successful black commanders was [[Toussaint Louverture]], a self-educated former domestic slave. Under the military leadership of Toussaint, the rebellious slaves were able to gain the upper hand and restore most of Saint-Domingue to France. Having made himself master of the island, however, Toussaint did not wish to surrender power to France, and ruled the country effectively as an autonomous entity. Louverture overcame a succession of local rivals (including Sonthonax, [[André Rigaud]], and [[Comte d'Hédouville]]). Hédouville forced a fatal wedge between Rigaud and Toussaint before he escaped back to France.<ref name="webster3">{{cite web |url=http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/history/revolution/revolution3.htm |title=Review of Haitian Revolution Part II |publisher= |accessdate=2006-11-27 }}</ref> Toussaint defeated a British [[expeditionary force]] in 1798, and even led an invasion of neighboring Santo Domingo, freeing the slaves there by 1801. A French general, Étienne Laveaux, was able to convince Louverture to change sides in May 1794 and fight for the French Republic against the Spanish; meanwhile Sonthonax had proclaimed an end to slavery on [[29 August]] [[1793]]. In 1801, Louverture issued a constitution for Saint-Domingue which provided for autonomy and decreed that he would be governor-for-life. In retaliation, [[Napoleon Bonaparte]] dispatched an expeditionary force of French soldiers to the island, led by Bonaparte's brother in law [[Charles Leclerc]], to restore French rule, and under secret instructions to later restore slavery. The French soldiers were accompanied by mulatto troops led by [[Alexandre Pétion]] and André Rigaud, who had been defeated by Toussaint three years earlier. Some of Toussaint's closest allies, including [[Jean-Jacques Dessalines]], defected to the French. Louverture was promised his freedom, if he agreed to integrate his remaining troops into the French Army. Louverture agreed to this in May 1802 but was deceived, and was seized and shipped off to France where he later died while imprisoned at [[Fort-de-Joux]].<ref name="kreyol-004"/> [[Image:Dessalines.jpg|thumb|right|115px|Jean Jacques Dessalines]] For a few months the island was largely quiescent under Napoleonic rule. But when it became apparent that the French intended to re-establish slavery, 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, and his successor, the [[Vicomte de Rochambeau]], fought an even more brutal campaign than his predecessor. 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. Napoleon had sold the [[Louisiana Territory]] to the United States in April 1803, and had begun to lose interest in his ventures in the [[Western Hemisphere]]. Dessalines led the rebellion until its completion when the French forces were finally defeated in 1803.<ref name="kreyol-004"/> The last battle of the Haitian Revolution, the [[Battle of Vertières]], occurred on [[November 18]] [[1803]], near [[Cap-Haitien]] and was fought between Haitian rebels led by [[Jean-Jacques Dessalines]] and the French colonial army under the [[Vicomte de Rochambeau|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 [[January 1]], [[1804]], [[Jean-Jacques Dessalines|Dessalines]], the new leader under the dictatorial 1801 constitution, declared Haiti a free republic. Thus Haiti became the second independent nation in the [[Western Hemisphere]], after the [[United States]], and the only successful slave rebellion in world history. However, the country had been crippled by years of war, its agriculture devastated, its formal commerce nonexistent, and the people uneducated and mostly unskilled.<ref name="kreyol-005">{{cite web |url=http://www.kreyol.com/history005.html |title=Independent Haiti |publisher= |accessdate=2006-11-27 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/httoc.html#ht0013 |title=Chapter 6 - Haiti: Historical Setting |publisher= |accessdate=2006-09-18 }}</ref> Haiti agreed 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 and mortgaged Haiti's future to the French banks providing the funds for the large first installment, permanently affecting Haiti's ability to be prosperous.<ref>{{cite web |year=200a |month= |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/httoc.html#ht0021 |title= A Country Study: Haiti -- Boyer: Expansion and Decline |publisher=Library of Congress |accessdate=2007-08-30 }}</ref> The end of the Haitian Revolution in 1804 marked the end of colonialism in Haiti, but the social conflict that had been 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]], but Great Britain was able to abolish their slave trade in 1807 and in 1833 abolished slavery completely in the [[British West Indies]]. France formally recognized Haiti as an independent nation in 1834 as did the United States in 1862.<ref name="caribbean">{{cite book | first=Franklin W. | last= Knight | year= 1990 | title= The Caribbean: The Genesis of a Fragmented Nationalism | edition= 2nd | publisher=Oxford University Press | location=New York | pages= p. 212 | id= ISBN 0-19-505441-5 }}</ref> ==Impacts== The Haitian Revolution was influential in slave rebellions in America and British colonies. 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 territory known as [[Louisiana_(New_France)|Louisiana]]. Many of the freed slaves of Saint-Domingue settled in New Orleans, profoundly influencing the history of that city. Britain became the first major power to permanently [[Abolitionism|abolish]] the [[slave trade]] in 1807. Although many slaves in the United States attempted to mimic Toussaint Louverture's actions in the Haitian Revolution and failed in the end, the Haitian Revolution stood as a model for emancipation. Louverture remains as a hero and still appears in art. In 2004, Haiti celebrated the bicentennial of its independence from France. ==Literature and art== * English poet [[William Wordsworth]] published his sonnet [http://www.nathanielturner.com/toussaintpoem.htm To Toussaint Louverture] in January 1803. * In 1938, American artist [[Jacob Lawrence]] created a series of paintings about the life of Toussaint Louverture, which he later adapted into a series of [http://www.alitashkgallery.com/lawrencetl/ prints]. * Cuban writer [[Alejo Carpentier]]'s second novel, ''[[The Kingdom of this World]]'' (1949) explores the Haitian Revolution in depth. It is almost universally recognized as one of the novels that inaugurated the Latin American "Boom" in fiction during the middle part of the twentieth century. * In 2004 an exhibition of paintings entitled [http://kimathidonkor.net/docs/haiti_gallery_frameset.html Caribbean Passion: Haiti 1804], by artist Kimathi Donkor, was held in London to celebrate the bicentenary of Haiti's revolution. ==See also== * [[Mawon]] * [[Polish Legions in Italy]] * [[U.S. Reaction to the Haitian Revolution]] * ''[[The Crime of Napoleon|The Crime of Napoleon (book)]]'' == Notes == <references/> == References == * Dubois, Laurent. ''Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution.'' Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University (2005) ISBN 0-674-01826-5. * Dubois, Laurent & Garrigus, John D. ''Slave Revolution in the Caribbean, 1789–1804: A Brief History with Documents.'' Bedford/St. Martin's Press (2006) ISBN 0-312-41501-X. * Garrigus, John D. ''Before Haiti: Race and Citizenship in Saint-Domingue.'' Palgrave-Macmillan, (2006) ISBN 1-4039-7140-4. * Geggus, David P. ''Haitian Revolutionary Studies.'' University of South Carolina Press, (2002) ISBN 1-57003-416-8. * [[C.L.R. James|James, C.L.R.]] ''The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution.'' Vintage, 2nd edition, (1989) ISBN 0-679-72467-2. * Ott, Thomas O. ''The Haitian Revolution, 1789–1804.'' University of Tennessee Press, 1973. * Peyre-Ferry, Joseph Elysée. ''Journal des opérations militaires de l'armée francaise à Saint-Domingue,1802-1803'' (2006), ISBN 2846210527. ==External links== * [http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/history/revolution/revolution.htm Haiti: Revolutionary War 1791 - 1803] * [http://thelouvertureproject.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page The Louverture Project]: [http://thelouvertureproject.org/wiki/index.php?title=Timeline_of_Events_in_Haitian_Revolutionary_History Timeline of Events in Haitian Revolutionary History] * [http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/hispanic/haiti/resources/haiti-history.html Portals to the World - Haiti] * [http://thelouvertureproject.org/index.php?title=Haitian_Constitution_of_1801_%28English%29 Haitian Constitution of 1801 (English)] * [http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/index.html Haiti Archives] * [http://www.ci.miami.fl.us/haiti2004/history.htm Haiti - The First Black Republic in the World] [[Category:History of Haiti]] [[Category:French Revolution]] [[Category:Haitian Revolution| ]] [[Category:18th century revolutions]] [[Category:18th century rebellions]] [[Category:19th century rebellions]] [[Category:Slave rebellions]] [[Category:Wars of independence]] [[de:Haitianische Revolution]] [[es:Revolución haitiana]] [[fr:Révolution haïtienne]] [[ka:ჰაიტის რევოლუცია]] [[nl:Haïtiaanse Revolutie]] [[ja:ハイチ革命]] [[pl:Rewolucja haitańska]] [[pt:Independência do Haiti]] [[ru:Гаитянская революция]] [[sv:Haitiska revolutionen]] [[zh:海地革命]]