AP Haitian Revolution

St. Domingue

The French colony that is now known as Haiti, where sugar cane and coffee were grown by African slaves.

Grande Blancs

The plantation-owning white class in the social hierarchy of St. Domingue.

Petite Blancs

The working-class white population in St. Domingue.

Gens de Couleur Libres

Freed mixed-race individuals in the social hierarchy of St. Domingue.

Affranchis

Freed slaves in St. Domingue.

Marrons

Runaway slaves who often hid in the mountains of St. Domingue.

Voodoo

The syncretic religion practiced in Haiti, combining elements of Catholicism and African animism.

Bondye

The one supreme god in Vodoo.

Dutty Boukman

A key figure who organized slave revolts in St. Domingue, leading a major uprising in 1791.

Toussaint L’Ouverture

A former slave who led the Haitian Revolution and unified the slave revolts into a war for independence.

Jean-Jacques Dessalines

The leader who declared Haiti a free nation in 1804 after the revolution and later proclaimed himself Emperor.

Haitian Revolution

The revolution that led to the independence of Haiti from French colonial rule.

Imperial rivalries

International conflicts that provided potential allies for the rebels during the Haitian Revolution.

Zombies

In the context of Haitian Vodoo, a state believed by slaves to occur after death where they might be condemned to work eternally on plantations.

Massacre of 5,000

The act ordered by Dessalines against white men, women, and children following independence.

Debt to France

Haiti's obligation to pay 150 million gold francs to France and former slave owners, impacting its economy until 1947.