the hatian revolution

  • second independent country in the western hemisphere after the united states.

  • bloodiest revolution in the western hemisphere per capita.

  • 1492

    • taino name “ayiti”

  • sant-domingue

    • one of the last eurpean colonies in americans

      • begins as a haven for french pirates, becomes a french colony in 1659.

    • racial categories

      • whites

        • grand blancs

          • mercantilism and big white resentment

          • they are richer.

          • large plantation owners.

          • half of them didn’t live in hati, but lived in france.

        • petit blancs (25,000 by 1800)

      • mixed race, “gens de couleur”

        • 20,000 by 1800. about 5%

        • they are from the union of french white men and african women, not indigenous people.

        • code noir: if you were the offspring of a white man and a black woman, you could be a free person from birth.

        • they become land owners and slave owners.

      • slaves

        • about 90% of the population

        • sant-domingue most africanized colony in the americas.

        • they got their slaves from what is modern day ghana and nigeria. they were parts of the ashante and the youruba people. most of them spoke the same language and had a common culture.

    • sugar and slaves

      • one of the hardest forms of slavery in the world- possibly ever

    • by 1790, most valuable country in the world.

      • about 50% of world’s sugar.

      • over 40% of the world’s coffee.

    • in the wake of the french revolution and the enlightenment

      • french authority weakened

      • the “age of revolution”

      • declaration of the rights of man

        • “men are born and remain free and equal in rights.”

  • hati revolution begins

    • slave revolt, august 1791

      • initiated by moukman dutty and voudou priestess cecile fatiman at the bois caiman ceremony.

        • the trouble with the sources!

      • hati, 1st successful slave rebellion in history. 2nd independant nation in the americas.

      • 1794, french assembly abolishes slavery. jacobins come to power.

  • hati daring to be free

    • chaotic, multi participant war

    • french try to re-conquer saint domingue in 1802

      • general leclerc and the french invasion

      • a disaster for the french, of the 31,000 french troops about 24,000 die. mostly of yellow fever and malaria.

    • 12 years of bloody conflict, Hati independent in 1803.

  • toussant l’ouverture

    • born as francois-dominique toussaint

    • the “black napoleon”

    • leader of the slave rebellion

    • military genius

  • l’ouveture betrayed and captured by the french. dies in french prison.

  • general jean-jacques dessalines drives out french troops. independent republic of hati declared 1/1/1804.

  • the aftermath

    • sugar industry destroyed

      • debt and a wrecked economy

    • haiti becomes a warning or cautionary tale to other slaveholding nations

    • haiti also becomes an example for other colonial peoples in the americas that freedom is possible.