The Haitian Revolution

1791-1803

Background of Saint Domingue

French Colony

Treaty of Rijswijk (1697) ceded western third of Hispaniola from

Spain to France

Richest colony in the West Indies

Driven by slave labor & plantation agriculture

Sugar, coffee, cocoa, indigo, tobacco, cotton…

Social Hierarchy: Whites

Gran Blancs - ~20,000; planters;

Owned slaves

Disenchanted with France (trade restrictions; no formal

representation w/French gov’t)

Petit Blancs

Less powerful than planters

Artisans, shop-keepers, merchants, teachers, etc.

May have a few slaves

Less independence-minded; loyal to France

Committed to slavery& very anti-black (competition for

jobs & power)

Social Hierarchy: Free Persons of Color

~30,000

Half mulattoes, often freed by father-masters

Mulattoes feared by slaves – unpredictable treatment by masters,

so slaves didn’t want to associate w/them

Half purchased freedom or were manumitted

Strove to be more ‘white’ than whites – denied African roots, well

educated, Catholics…

Desired independence to gain more freedoms & independence

Social Hierarchy: Blacks

Slaves ~500,000

Outnumbered free people 10:1

VERY bad slavery conditions

Divided behavior by occupation:

Domestic Slaves – 100,000 – better treated; identified more with white & mulatto masters; often remained loyal to masters

Field Hands – 400,000 – harshest, most hopeless lives

Maroons – estimated tens of thousands

Runaway slaves

Lived in small villages in the mountains

Kept African ways

Bitterly anti-slavery, but were not going to fight for freedom alone

Sometimes raided plantations

Motivations for Independence

French Revolution began 1789, sparking Haitian Revolution in 1791

Exclusif – system requiring Saint-Domingue to sell 100% of her exports to France alone &

buy 100% imports from France

Prices favorable to France

Contraband trade grew with British in Jamaica & to the United States

Planters united with free people of color to rebel against oppression of France

Curious alliance… whites continued to oppress free people of color

Petit Blancs remained outside – not willing to ally with free people of color

This did NOT include slaves (this movement driven by slave owners envisioning a free Saint-

Domingue with slaves, like the US)

Slave Rebellions

Simultaneously, slave rebellions occurred

Slave owners, petit blancs, and free blacks all feared slave revolts

Poisons used against masters (Grew naturally)

No allies & not even unified among slaves (some remained loyal to

masters)

Maroons were in contact, but had no formal alliances

Earliest Period of Revolution: 1789-1791

People of Saint-Domingue had to choose sides during French Rev.

White Cockades – loyal to monarchy

Red Cockades – supported revolution

More fluid identification than in France

26 August 1789 – Declaration of the Rights of Man & Citizen adopted

Interested free persons of color

French remained ‘gradualist’ in ideas of freeing slaves (wanted to maintain prosperity of West Indian colonies)

28 March 1790 – General Assembly declared “all the proprietors … ought to be active citizens”

Exclude petit blancs?

Argue citizenship for free persons of color who owned property? (most did…)

1789-1791

Conflicting demands on people’s loyalties >> changes in ‘sides’ and

allies

Petit blancs & white planters allied against French bureaucrats over local control…

but gran blancs did not advocate for full rights for petit blancs (didn’t last long)

White planters & free blacks (all rich) allied too late

Result: 3-sided civil war

Petit blancs formed a Colonial Assembly at St. Marc

White planters saw this as against their interests; formed own at Cape Francois

Split between colonial whites strengthened French gov’t officials

Petit & Gran blancs carried out individual wars of terror against blacks

Oge Rebellion

Rich mualtto Vincent Oge had been in Paris in March 1790

Attempted to get the General Assembly to specify provisions of citizenship for free persons of color , but failed

Returned to Saint-Domingue & force issue

Met with anti-slavery advocate Thomas Clarkson in England, then went to the U.S. to meet with abolitionists &

purchase arms

Formed a military band in Saint-Domingue with Jean-Baptiste Chavannes

Rejected help of black slaves

Forces badly beaten in November; Oge & Chavannes escaped to Santo Domingo

Spanish arrested & returned them

9 March 1791

Captured soldiers hanged

Oge & Chavanned tortured to death in the public square (Rack)

End of first mini-war in Haitian Rev. – slaves not yet involved or even at issue!

Slave Rebellion of 21 August 1791

Typical date of the beginning of Haitian Revolution

Increasing slave desertion >> many maroons

Woman at Petwo Voodoo service on 14 August sacrificed a black pig;

speaking in voice of Ogoun, Voodoo warrior spirit, announced names of

those who were to lead the slaves & maroons in a revolt: Boukman, Jean-

Francois, Biassou, & Jeannot

Toussaint, Henry Christophe, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, & Andre Rigaud took

places later

Maroons & slaves readied themselves for the assault

Whole northern plain surrounding Cape Francois was in flames

Plantation owners murdered

Women raped & killed

Children slaughtered & bodies mounted on poles

More than 1,000 whites killed

Revolt in the South

Mireblaais had a union of people of color & slaves, menacing the whole southern region

Defeated white soldiers out of Port-Au-Prince

Marched on the city

Did not want to defeat the whites, rather to join them (Free people of color still not that concerned

with emancipating slaves)

In response, on 20 September 1791, the Colonial Assembly recognized the May decree &

citizenship of all free persons of color, regardless of property or birth status

Meanwhile, in France the uprising prompted the General Assembly to change its mind on the

May Decree & revoked it on 23 September

Ordered 3 commissioners to go to Saint-Domingue with 18,000 soldiers to restore slavery, order, &

French control

French Response

Commissioners arrived in December 1791

Had 6,000 instead of 18,000 troops

Whites had broken alliance with free people of color

Some whites joined free blacks

South & West divided into three factions & whites in Port-au-Prince were

weakened

Became apparent that the troops could not restore peace

Reversed itself again & gave full citizenship to people of color on 4 April

1792

Prepared Second Civil Commission to go to Saint-Domingue & enforce

the April 4 Decree

Sent Felicite Leger Sonthonax

Review

By 1790 the colony of Saint-Domingue -- present day Haiti -- was torn by numerous dissensions:

Many white planters wanted independence from Revolutionary France.

Free persons of color, attracted to the concept of equality embedded in the doctrine of The Rights of

Man, were struggling for full rights of citizenship.

Slaves, hearing the talk of human equality, and oppressed by inhuman conditions, revolted to

improve their lot.

Each group strove against the other, making strange alliances both inside the colony and with

factions in France, England, the U.S. and Spain.

Saint-Domingue was a colony in full revolt, and on the verge of being lost to France. The French National Assembly sent the Second Civil Commission to try to save the colony for

France and restore Saint-Domingue's productivity.

Sonthonax Arrives

By early 1792, slaves controlled most of the northern plain

But, French more scared of struggle between free persons of color & white planters

Whites wanted independence & looked at U.S. as an example

Free persons of color looked to France as their sole hope (had citizenship)

Needed to end quarrel between whites & free blacks, then easily reinstall slavery

Sonthonax arrived 18 September 1792 & quickly achieved 3 goals

Pacified/contained slave rebellion

Defeated primary white resistance

Held colony for France

February 1793

France declared war on Britain

British navy cut off Sonthonax’s supply line

British invaded Saint-Domingue, unraveling Sonthonax’s achievements

Louis XVI guillotined >> France became a republic w/o a king

Provided new grounds for resistance from white planters

Some became royalists (king would return old patterns)

Toussaint L’Ouverture

Former slave who joined rebellion as medical officer

Ability to organize, train, & lead became apparent

Rode to become a general, first under Biassou, then

on his own

Did not trust French after the execution of Louis XVI

Made alliance with the Spanish, who were also at war

with France

February Takeaway Points

Colonists now had foreign support & reopened

struggle against the April Decree

Slaves had gone over to the Spanish

Sonthonax faced with invasion from British out of

Jamaica

Could not count on reinforcements from France…

SO, Sonthonax Frees All Slaves!

British probably going to attack, as well as the

Spanish with their Saint-Domingue slave army

Galbaud, a Frenchman left in charge of Cap

Fancois betrayed Sonthonax

It looked like Galbaud’s forces might win, so Sonthonax

offered freedom & citizenship to 15,000 slaves >> quickly defeated Galbaud

Freed newly freed slave soldiers’ families next

23 August 1793 – unilaterally decreed

emancipation of slaves

Hoped the 500,000 slaves would join the fight on behalf of

France

British Invasion

Landed at Jeremie on 19 September 1793

Welcomed by white property owners who agreed Saint-

Domingue would become a British colony

Slavery would be reinstated

People of color would lose citizenship

British economic policy would favor colonists more so than

France’s had

Captured Port-au-Prince by 4 June 1794 as well as most

port towns

Looked as though the French could not hold out against

the British / Spanish onslaught

L’Ouverture Switches Sides

Went to the French side

Fighting for emancipation

Having problems with the Spanish (didn’t trust him)

Knew Spanish were not strong in Europe

Having problems with Jean-Francois and Biassou

Black & mulatto forces followed

Removal of Spanish

Defeated by French in Europe – 22 July 1795

Ceded Santo Domingo to the French

L’Ouverture’s army took over later

Spanish black armies disbanded

Many joined L’Ouverture

Jean-Francois retired to Spain

Biassou went to Florida

Britain developed difficulties too

Ceased fighting to address rebellion in Jamaica

Internal Power Struggle

Toussaint L’Ouverture vs. Andre Rigaud & Villatte

Mulattoes suspicious of L’Ouverture

Plotted against L’Ouverture & the French

First move against General Laveaux (governor & head of French forces)

Taken at Le Cap by Villatte

L’Ouverture marched on Cap Francois with 10,000 men

Mulatto forces capitulated & released Laveaux on 22 March

Villatte fled into exile

Laveaux made L’Ouverture Lieutenant Governor

Sonthonax Returns

L’Ouverture realized Sonthonax and Laveaux stood in his way

Engineered an election where Sonthonax & Laveaux were

‘elected’ to return to France to the National Assembly

Took a while to get Sonthonax to leave

3 Challenges left to L’Ouverture’s authority:

Belief of the National Assembly that he was not loyal to France

Andre Rigaud & mulatto forces

Santo Domingo next door

L’Ouverture & Independence

Appeared loyal to France & sympathetic to

U.S. support in Saint-Domingue’s

independence

Strong French culture in Saint-Domingue,

especially among the affronchais (Freed before

the emancipation) to separate themselves from

slaves

The War of Knives

16 June 1799 – Rigaud attacked Petit Goave

Killed many with swords

Gruesome excesses on both sides of this civil war

Eventually centered around Rigaud’s stronghold at Jacmel

Jean-Jacques Dessalines besieged for L’Ouverture

Dessalines would become first president & emperor of Free Haiti in 1804

Petion, Rigaud’s general, would become the president of the Republic of Haiti in 1807

Jacmel fell 11 March 1800

Rigaud fled to France; worked for Napoleon

Dessalines then employed by L’Ouverture to pacify the south

Butchered mulattoes, estimated from 200 to 10,000

1800 & Conquest of Santo Domingo

By August, L’Ouverture was ruler of Saint-Domingue & no foreign

power was on soil

Governor-general of whole colony

Santo Domingo was intolerable

Spanish ceded the colony to France in 1795,

but never actually turned it over

Spanish presence there was actually in

France’s interest, to check the rebellion

Now Toussaint wanted to claim authority of the entire island

Captured Santo Domingo City 26 January 1801

Consolidated power & emerged as governor-general of Hispaniola

Constitution

26 July 1801 – Toussaint published new constitution

Abolished slavery

Allowed importation of free blacks to work plantations

Roman Catholicism as state religion

Claimed himself governor-general for life

All men 14-55 in state militia

Remained loyal & subservient to France… but didn’t run it by Napoleon

first!

US & Britain didn’t believe the loyalty claims; strove to out-do one another in trade

w/Saint-Domingue

Napoleon declared “This gilded African” would have to go

Leclerc Invasion

Charles Leclerc – brother-in-law of Napoleon – sent with

12,000 soldiers

Instructed to make ties & break them

Promise black leadership places in French government … then

deport black leaders who seemed troublesome

Disarm blacks & return colony to slavery

Didn’t fool many

Arrived 2 February 1802 in Cap Francois, defended by

Henri Christophe (second president & only King of Haiti)

Threatened to burn the city to the ground if Leclerc tried to

disembarck… & he did!

Final Stage of Revolution: the Leclerc Campaign

Quickly took control of coastal towns, although Haitians burned them as they retreated

Phase 1: Crete-a-Pierrot

Desalinnes defended former British fort

Both sides claimed victory (French had fort, but lost

more men)

Haitians retreated to the Cahos mountains >> guerilla

war from then on

Phase 2: Surrender

26 April – Christophe & troops surrendered; Toussaint on 1 May

At first, Toussaint retired to his plantation… debate over if he plotted revenge at that point

Met with the French 7 June >> shipped to prison in France

Fort de Joux; died 7 April 1803

Final Uprising

Haitians incensed by treatment of L’Ouverture

Leclerc’s men unsuccessful in disarming blacks from June to October 1802

Dessalines & Cristophe worked with the French – more interested in own power than

anything

Dessalines flipped & took leadership of the rebels

Rebel leaders met 2 November at Arcahaye, south of St Marc

Elected Dessalines commander-in-chief

Chose red & blue as their banner

Same day – Leclerc died of yellow fever & General Rochambeau took command, reinforced by another 10,000 troops

By this point, most maroons also saw French as the enemy & joined with the Haitians to drive out the French

Dessalines & Rochambeau

Both capable & ruthless leaders

Traded atrocities: torture, rape, murder, mass murder of non-

combatants, mutilation, forcing families to watch…

Rochambeau’s forces made considerable gains in early

1803 despite yellow fever & increasing numbers of Haitian

fighters

Britain & France reengaged in war on 18 May 1803 >> Britain

supported Dessalines with arms & naval support

Same war also cut supplies to Rochambeau

French held only Le Cap by end of October

Evacuated 19 November 1803

Independence Day

1 January 1804

France formally removed from Hispaniola after 13 years of war

Country in ruins

Masses uneducated & struggling

Other nations – U.S., Britain, Spain, France – skeptical & nervous

about all-black republic

Haitian Heads of State

Name Began Office Left Office Title(s)

Toussaint Louverture 1 January 1791 6 May 1802 Governor-General for Life

Jean-Jacques Dessalines 1 January 1804 17 October 1806 Emperor of Haiti

Henri Christophe 17 October 1806 8 October 1820 President of the State of Haiti -1811; King

of Haiti 1811-1820 (northern Haiti)

Alexandre Petion 17 October 1806 29 March 1818 President; President for Life (southern

Haiti)

Jean-Pierre Boyer 30 March 1818 13 February 1843 President for Life (all of Hispaniola was

Republic of Haiti from 1822)

Michel Martelly 14 May 2011 Present President