1. Haitian Revolution

2. (Colony of St. Domingue)
French
(Colony of St. Domingue)
Spanish
France took western 1/3 of island from Spain

3. Social Structure in Haiti
Whites (20,000)
Gens de Couleur
(30,000)
Slaves
(500,000)

4. Pre-Revolution: Haiti the richest colony in the WORLD
French colonists brought African slaves to develop large sugar and coffee plantations
By ,000 slaves and 60,000 colonists (outnumbered 8 : 1)
Haiti the richest colony in the WORLD

5. 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?

6. 1790
Vincent Ogé (un gen de couleur), goes to France, wants rights for free blacks
Back in Haiti, demand end to discrimination.
Ogé is killed by whites (chained to wagon wheel and repeatedly run over).
French National Assembly allows colonial whites to determine political life in Haiti.

7. 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.

8. A Rallying Cry
“Coute la liberté 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)

9. 1791: CRISIS Slave revolt Toussaint becomes a military leader
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 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.

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

11. No contemporary Image of
Toussaint exists

12. The Revolution through the eyes of modern artists
(Whose pose?)
The Revolution through the
eyes of modern artists

13. Slave Revolt – Who would publish this?

14. 1792
French Assembly and Louis XVI grant all free men of color full citizenship rights

15. 1793 Whites imprisoned, gens de couleur take power
Toussaint controls most of colony
French National Convention abolishes slavery in an attempt to pacify island.

16. 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?

17. 1799
War of the Castes
Gens de couleur support France (want slaves back)
Toussaint’s 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.

18. 1799
Toussaint gets nickname “L’ouverture” (break through enemy lines) from the French
Some of Toussaint’s officers had fought in American Revolution
Jefferson reverses Adams’ policy calling Toussaint’s army “cannibals” (Didn’t he write the Declaration of Independence? Why did he say that?)
French British and Spanish armies incompetent, (especially French who were decimated by disease.)
Napoleon’s coup d’état in France (internal weakness)
-He wants to reestablish slavery and colonialism

19. What to do..
What to do!

20. 1800-Extreme Action
Le plus ca change ... le plus ca reste la même
“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 doesn’t work

21. 1802
Toussaint surrenders (under false pretenses) and is taken to France - dies of neglect and starvation in jail

22. 1802 Revolution is carried on by 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

23. 1803
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 Toussaint’s army

24. Massacre of 1804
Mulattos and Blacks massacre remaining whites in the nation.

25. 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 today’s 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.

26. "The Heroes" by Smith Georges
(Toussaint Louverture, Dessalines, Petion, Christophe, Boukman)
First president
King of Northern Haiti!
Emperor of Haiti

27. 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

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

29. Compare the French and Haitian Revolutions
Stages
Class aspirations
Class participation
Role of outside forces

30. Crash Course Haitian Revolution