Haitian Revolution DBQ

The concepts of equality and liberty drove revolutionaries to expel their colonial overlords to abolish slavery and create an equal and just society. The idea of equality appealed to lower class Americans such as mestizos, mulattoes and natives, but especially inspired black slaves. Lower class Americans believed a revolution would move them up in society to the level of creoles while slaves saw revolutions as a way to gain freedom. Haiti’s declaration of independence in 1904, showed slaves’ motivations by stating that they would rather die than be forced back into in slavery and that they must create a government that protects the Haitians’ freedom. As former slaves, the Haitians were extremely worried the French would try to invade them again, as Napoleon had tried to do to fund his wars in Europe. Thus,
He had experienced firsthand the horrors of slavery and made its abolition the most important aspect of the revolution (Doc. 5). The Haitian Revolution clearly drew influence from Enlightenment writings, such as those of Rousseau, a strong proponent of universal equality, and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man, which called for abolition of slavery (Doc. 3). Of Mexico, Alexander Von Humboldt, a German scientist, wrote that Mexican natives lived in abject poverty and the country was full of painfully obvious inequality (Doc. 6). As an outsider to Spanish colonial society, Humboldt easily saw the severe inequalities that had become commonplace to Latin Americans. In many ways, the structure of Spanish society in her colonies could be compared to the Hindu caste system. The caste system separated Indian society into castes based on birth and dictated a person’s occupation and place in the societal hierarchy. Like the caste system, birth (in the form of race) was the basis of the colonial hierarchy and determined how far up a person could move up the societal