What Caused The Haitian Revolution Essay

In 1789, St. Domingue was an extremely wealthy colony. The colony had become the richest colony of France and they also had the biggest market for African slave trade. In the late eighteenth century slave resistance began to become a more organized form. In August of 1791 a slave rebellion broke out, led by Toussaint L’Ouverture. It began a twelve year resistance to secure human rights. The Haitian Revolution is the only successful slave rebellion in history. The revolution resulted with the establishment of Haiti, and became the first independent black state in the New World. Many things led up to the revolution in St. Domingue. One being that there was no equality amongst the social classes. There were three different classes;
there were the whites, who were in control. There were the free Mulattoes who served a very tenuous position in society. Lastly, there were the slaves. The slaves were forced to live under very harsh circumstances. They were constantly being brutally beaten and viewed as objects, not human beings. Another cause for the revolution was the disregard of the Declaration of the Rights of Man.
“The basic principle of the Declaration was that all ‘men are born and remain free and equal in rights”, which were specified as the rights of liberty, private property, the inviolability of the person, and resistance to oppression.” After this declaration was passed the government continued to use slaves for profit. After years of abuse from the whites, the blacks finally started to take action. In 1790 a series of revolts occurred by the Mulattoes. They were led by Vincent Oge. “Descendants of mixed blood were trying to establish suffrage from a recent National Assembly ruling.” The Colonial assembly ignored the revolt. These revolts then led up to the twelve year St. Domingue
revolution. The St.
Domingue revolution was led by Toussaint L’Ouverture, also know to his peers as “The Black Napoleon”. Louverture was the eldest son of an African prince named Gaou Guinon. On May 20 of 1743 LO’uverture was captured and forced into slavery. When the law was passed stating that the blacks may be viewed as property, Louverture inspired kindness. Louverture was able to become very wise and was taught how to read and write. “At a time when revisions to the French Code Noir (Black Code) legalized the harsh treatment of slaves as property, young L’Ouverture instead inspired kindness from those in authority over him. His godfather, the priest Simon Baptiste, for example, taught him to read and write.” L’Ouverture was able to use his new skills to get him a good reputation and became a well known horseman. L’Ouverture had then secured his freedom and continued to manage his former owners household personnel and act as his coachman. L’Ouverture knew he had to join the uprising on the night of August 22 1791, better known as “The Night of Fire” which was when slaves revolted by setting plantation houses and fields on fire, killing whites. L’Ouverture was able to come up with military strategies to lead the slaves. He was able to gain many followers and many fighters for his
army. After war broke out in 1793 between Britain and France, British forces tried to invade St. Domingue. They assumed that taking control of the colony would be easy, but they were very wrong. Toussaint L’Ouverture and his army were now fighting for the French and even though the British sent in reinforcements they were unable to defeat the French. Britain agreed to have a trading relationship with L’Ouverture. He then faced a new threat, “In 1801, France signed a preliminary peace treaty with Britain. Napoleon had seized power in France and now dreamt of recapturing St Domingue and restoring chattel slavery. Britain did not stand in his way.” Toussaint L’Ouverture was captured and France failed to retake the colony. After twelve years of war, mass murder, and betrayal the St. Domingue revolution finally came to an end. In 1804 the St. Domingue leaders proclaimed the island as the Republic of Haiti. The goal of the revolution was for the black slaves to gain freedom, and that is exactly what they got. The revolution was extremely successful and the generations of slavery and suffering had now come to an end. In conclusion, the St. Domingue revolution all started because the black slaves were treated very poorly. After years of abuse the slaves revolted and began a 12 year revolution led by Toussaint L’Ouverture. L’Ouverture was able to lead the slaves to victory. In 1804 slavery in St. Domingue was finally abolished and the free nation of Haiti was formed.