Overview Of The History Of The Revolution In Haiti

In the beginning Haiti was populated by the natives called the Tainos. The lived in the land now known as Haiti. On December 6th 1492 Christopher Columbus found the land and decided to leave 39 men to live there. One year later in 1493 Christopher Columbus brings 1200 men and declares the land Spanish land. He calls it St Domingo. During this year Columbus finds that the land is rich in gold and sugar. In 1502 the Spanish decided to ship in African slaves and by 1546 there were 12,000 slaves from Africa. In the 1670s France saw that 1/3 of the land was not being used by the Spanish so they decided to move into the land but it wasn't until 1697 That Franc officially declared the area part of France and named it Saint Domingue. In France controlled Saint Domingue there were many issues because of the multiple races that were present on the Island. The French that came over were mostly white and used slave labour on their plantations. The slaves that were brought over from Africa were black and occasionally white slave owners would have kids with black female slaves and this created brown babies called mulattoes. Often the mulattoes would have the wealth of their white father and have plantations of their own but sometimes the father wouldn't consider the child his because of the dark skin color. In the early days of France's control over Saint Domingue, people were unsure of France's views on slavery so Louis XIV outlined the countries position on this and created the Black Code.

Since there were so many racial and economic groups during this time, a social hierarchy was created so people could understand their importance in the society. At the very top were the white slave owners and they were known as the grand blancs or great whites. Second up on the list were the affranchis, they children who had white fathers and black slave mothers. These kids often held lots of wealth and owned plantations and slaves themselves. Third on the list were the petits blancs. The petits blancs were whites who had working class jobs and owned shops and stalls. Last on the list are the slaves. In 1791 the first slave rebellion took place. A man by the name of Boukman Dutty organized multiple rebellions in the north of Saint Domingue. This started the Haitian revolution. In the first few months Boukman Dutty and his slave rebels burned nearly 1000 plantations. They did this because in France the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen. One year later, the French Government decided that slavery was wrong and that they should ban slavery and make slaves full citizens and so they did. Spain and Britain tried to remain neutral and not provoke a war with a very fragile country. They tried this but in September of 1792 when France became a republic, Spain and Britain were fearful that this idea of revolution and freedom would spread to their colonies, so in 1793 France went to war with Britain. Toussaint was a former slave but was favored by his master so he was taught how to read and how to write. He was freed in 1770. He later joined Spain and became known as a strategic genius in combat. He would go on to command thousands of troops for Spain. In 1795 Spain surrendered to France and knew that they could not defeat them. One year later in 1796 Louverture was declared the lieutenant governor of Saint Domingue. Britain still owned slaves in parts of Saint Domingue so in 1797, Louverture and the affranchis leader, Andre Riguad pushed Britain out.

The short alliance between Louverture and Riguad quickly broke and a civil war began because they each wanted to control Saint Domingue. The war was known as the 'the war of the knives' and it began in 1799. Louvertures forces were mostly black whilst Riguads where mulattoes. This was seen as a race war although the main reason for the war was due to differences in economics. Riguads forces wanted to preserve their political power and economic privileges but Louvertures forces feared that if they lost then slavery and inequality would return. Louverture controlled the north and the west and Riguad controlled the south. They fought for 5 months and Louvertures plan was to cut food supplies and to starve his enemy out. In July 1800 Louverture sent one of his top generals, Jean-Jacques Desallines to finally destroy Riguads army. Louvertures success was partly because of treaties he formed with Britain and the United States. They sent him food and supplies and in return France's position in the Caribbean would be much weaker. Whilst Louverture was in control, one of the main things he did was creating the constitution of 1801. This constitution added many things into law such as;

1. Abolishing slavery

2. Outlawing voodoo in favor Catholicism

3. Declaring all people of Saint Domingue citizens of France.

Despite all the good this constitution did, there were many people upset with certain aspects of the constitution such as outlawing voodoo and the concentration of land to large estates. In October 1801 many farmers rose up against the authorities and wanted land to be distributed among the people. They also charged Louverture with exploiting the masses for the benefit of France and finally they didn't want to become French citizens. Since Saint Domingue was still technically a French colony, Napoleon thought of the constitution of 1801 as a move for independence and in October of 1801 he sent 20,000 soldiers to retake control over the island. The general chosen to take control was General Leclerc. The soldiers arrived 4 months later and captured the whole southern half of Saint Domingue in only 3 weeks. By mid February, nearly half of the generals in Louvertures army joined Leclercs army. They were unaware that Napoleon planned on reinstating slavery and they saw themselves as French citizens. In April of 1802 Louverture agreed to negotiate with Leclerc and so they met in May 1802 and Louverture agreed to retire from war and live with his family but he was betrayed and sent on a boat to The Alps and died less than a year later. In July 1802 Napoleon reinstated slavery in other French colonies and so the people of Saint Domingue didn't trust the French. Because of this many soldiers left the French army and made a violent uprising against the government. In response to this France created a campaign against blacks and half blacks where they would hold mass public executions, use wild dogs to hunt down blacks and even burnings. It came to the point where Leclerc said he would have to kill all blacks to accomplish his goal. 'We must destroy all of the Negroes in the hills, men and women, sparing only children under twelve…and leave behind not a single man of color who has worn (a military uniform) – without this the colony will never be at peace. ”

Later on in the year, in October of 1802, Deassalines and other generals abandoned France and joined the violent uprising. Once Dessalines joined the uprising, he became commander in chief. As commander in chief, he began a scorched earth campaign similar to Boukmann Duttys, where they would burn down plantations and full towns to the ground. One month later Leclerc died from yellow fever. The French army was very weak at this point due to yellow fever and limited resources. One year later, Dessalines supposedly created the French flag by ripping the white out of the French flag to symbolize getting rid of the white people. When Haiti finally gained its independence, Napoleon convinced most of Europe not to trade or do any business with Haiti and it worked. France argued that if other countries supported Haiti then their slaves would revolt. Not only was Haiti unable to trade with most of Europe but because of the scorched earth campaign, Haiti had next to no infrastructure and had nothing of value that the country could use to sustain their economy.

Despite Haiti claiming independence much earlier, France didn't recognize Haiti until 1825 under Charles X. He only recognized them on the condition that Haiti paid the equivalent of $22 billion for all the land and slaves France lost. Haiti agreed to this because they thought they would see economic growth via trading. Haiti couldn't pay all of it so they had to take out loans and in 1913 they were paying 80% of their annual income to pay back France and it wasn't until 1947 that Haiti paid off their debt.