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 CARIBBEANMARACAS ROYAL ROAD, MARACAS, ST. JOSEPH.

The Haitian Revolution

An AssignmentPresented in Partial Fulfillmentof the Requirements for the CourseHIST147: WEST INDIAN HISTORY

INSTRUCTOR: TShana Thomas-Francique

By

Carlene Stewart

8th March, 2014

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

References

www.marriam-webster.comby 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 1492- 1805: 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