What Caused The Haitian Revolution Essay

In 1789, St. Domingue was an extremely wealthy colony. The colony had become the richest colony of France and they also had the biggest market for African slave trade. In the late eighteenth century slave resistance began to become a more organized form. In August of 1791 a slave rebellion broke out, led by Toussaint L’Ouverture. It began a twelve year resistance to secure human rights. The Haitian Revolution is the only successful slave rebellion in history. The revolution resulted with the establishment of Haiti, and became the first independent black state in the New World. Many things led up to the revolution in St. Domingue. One being that there was no equality amongst the social classes. There were three different classes;
“The basic principle of the Declaration was that all ‘men are born and remain free and equal in rights”, which were specified as the rights of liberty, private property, the inviolability of the person, and resistance to oppression.” After this declaration was passed the government continued to use slaves for profit. After years of abuse from the whites, the blacks finally started to take action. In 1790 a series of revolts occurred by the Mulattoes. They were led by Vincent Oge. “Descendants of mixed blood were trying to establish suffrage from a recent National Assembly ruling.” The Colonial assembly ignored the revolt. These revolts then led up to the twelve year St. Domingue
Domingue revolution was led by Toussaint L’Ouverture, also know to his peers as “The Black Napoleon”. Louverture was the eldest son of an African prince named Gaou Guinon. On May 20 of 1743 LO’uverture was captured and forced into slavery. When the law was passed stating that the blacks may be viewed as property, Louverture inspired kindness. Louverture was able to become very wise and was taught how to read and write. “At a time when revisions to the French Code Noir (Black Code) legalized the harsh treatment of slaves as property, young L’Ouverture instead inspired kindness from those in authority over him. His godfather, the priest Simon Baptiste, for example, taught him to read and write.” L’Ouverture was able to use his new skills to get him a good reputation and became a well known horseman. L’Ouverture had then secured his freedom and continued to manage his former owners household personnel and act as his coachman. L’Ouverture knew he had to join the uprising on the night of August 22 1791, better known as “The Night of Fire” which was when slaves revolted by setting plantation houses and fields on fire, killing whites. L’Ouverture was able to come up with military strategies to lead the slaves. He was able to gain many followers and many fighters for his