What Is The Haitian Revolution
The Haitian Revolution was an uprising of slaves in Haiti. The French were transporting a majority of their slaves to Haiti to farm sugar. As expected, the slaves were being treated inhumanely. In fact, the slaves on Haiti were the worst treated slaves in history. So after a slave gathering, they revolted.
Main Events
The start of the revolution happened two weeks after Dutty Boukman, a voodoo priest, held a voodoo ceremony with all the neighboring plantations. On the night of August 22, 1791, a thousand enslaved Africans attacked their masters. In the beginning of the revolution, a leader named Toussaint Louverture rose up and lead the slaves to many victories. Toussaint was aware of both the French and the Spanish forces looking to capture Haiti. In order to push out the French, Toussaint got resources from the Spanish. The Spanish gave them the guns and ammo in order to push the French out and capture Haiti for themselves. After three years of opposing the French, Toussaint, and his followers re-joined the French when they started talking about liberty, equality, fraternity. All men equal. With the French on their side, the ex-slaves started to, once again, tip the balance and push out the Spanish forces, as well as British forces. As Napoleon rises to power, the inhabitants of Haiti leave the French to fight for three months. After the second revolt, Napoleon reversed the emancipation of the slaves. The Haitian rose up once again, to stop the reimposition of slavery. During the revolt, they only killed the French, unlike most believe. To end the fight, the Haitians burnt the towns to leave the French little choice but to depart. In 1803 the French army was driven out with a loss of fifty thousand soldiers, and Haiti became the world's first black Republic.