Page 305 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

1606 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has
always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem
invincible but in the end, they always fall. • Mohandas Gandhi (1869–1948)

Subscribers to revolutionary doctrines as well as conser- exclusively to France. At the time the revolution began,
vatives, whose ideology was born of a determination to the colony’s population comprised about 20,000 whites,
prevent revolution, would not be who they are if it were 30,000 free people of color (including many of mixed
not for the French Revolution. African and French ancestry), 500,000 black slaves, and
at least 10,000 Maroons (escaped slaves who lived in set-
Ronald Schechter
tlements in the mountains). Slaves outnumbered non-
See also Napoleonic Empire; Revolution—Haiti slaves by about ten to one.
The start of the revolution is conventionally dated to
21 August 1791, but the origins of the revolt go back fur-
Further Reading ther in time and are complex. First, people in the colony
Blanning, T. C. W. (1997). The French Revolution: Class war or culture were already divided about their allegiance to France. For
clash? New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Jones, P. M. (1995). Reform and revolution in France:The politics of tran- a number of years prior to 1791, many whites and free
sition, 1774–1791. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. people of color had been becoming more and more dis-
Sagan, E. (2001). Citizens and cannibals:The French Revolution, the strug-
gle for modernity, and the origins of ideological terror. Lanham, MD: enchanted with French rule and especially French control
Rowman & Littlefield. of the economy, with all goods flowing to and from
Stone, B. (2002). Reinterpreting the French Revolution:A global-historical France. However, there were also divisions in both
perspective. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Tackett, T. (1996). Becoming a revolutionary: The deputies of the French groups over loyalty to France, with some remaining
National Assembly and the emergence of a revolutionary culture. strong supporters of French rule. Second, the slave system
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
in Haiti was especially harsh (slaves in other colonies
feared being sent there), and there had been frequent
slave revolts, while the number of slaves fleeing to
Maroon settlements in the mountains was increasing
Revolution—Haiti each year. Third, the French Revolution of 1789 weak-
ened French control and created a cry for freedom in
he revolution in Haiti began in 1791 and ended in Haiti. Finally, Haitian slaves had developed a rural culture
T1804 with the establishment of the Republic of of their own centered on their religion (vodun) and
Haiti. It is the only slave revolt in history that led to extended families.Although often depicted as witchcraft,
founding of an independent nation. The Republic of vodun was and remains a religion with its own set of
Haiti was the second republic (after the United States) beliefs, practices, and religious specialists.
established in the Americas. What history now sees as the revolution began fol-
Haiti is a small island nation that occupies about one- lowing a vodun ceremony in which a vodun priest named
third of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea. It Boukman and several other men were designated leaders
was claimed for Spain by Columbus in 1492 and became of the revolt. The bloody and destructive revolt pitted
a Spanish colony.The indigenous Indian population was black slaves against white plantation owners. Interven-
soon wiped out by disease and the hardships of slavery tions by the French failed, and whites and mulattos fled
and was replaced by slaves imported from West Africa. In to the north. Some calm prevailed in 1796 when the reli-
1697 Hispaniola was divided into French and Spanish gious healer Toussaint Louverture (c.1743–1803) took
sectors, with the French colony called Saint Domingue. control in the north and restored order and stimulated
Saint Domingue quickly became France’s richest colony, some economic activity. In 1801 Napoleon sent 34,000
with a large slave force working on plantations to pro- troops to the island under the command of his brother-
duce sugar, coffee, cocoa, indigo, tobacco, cotton, sisal, in-law, Charles Leclerc. This force failed to retake the
and other agricultural products, all of which flowed colony, although Louverture was taken to France where