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CARIBBEAN COLLAGE

THE Haitian Revolution, 1791-1804

René Phelipeaux. Plan de la ville du Cap Français et de ses environs. Paris, 1785. This cloth map depicts the city of Cap Français, the economic and cultural center of Saint-Domingue, six years before the Haitian Revolution.

Letter from Alleon-Dulac (manager of the Rocheblave plantation) to Dupre de Saint-Maur (Intendant of Bordeaux). September 8, 1781. In an effort to sell the Rocheblave estate in Saint-Domingue, Alleon-Dulac notes in this and other letters that the plantation held 101 enslaved Africans who were “well-to-do and healthy.” Twelve years later, 50,000 or more Africans from the colony’s Northern Province destroyed hundreds of area plantations, including Rocheblave.

A map of the island of St. Domingo. London: J. Stockdale, 1800. This 1800 map delineates the 1776 boundary between the French and Spanish sections of Hispaniola, though Spain ceded its territory to France in 1795. The map shows such features as towns, roads and waterways as they existed during the revolutionary wars.

Before the Haitian Revolution, the labor of approximately 400,000 enslaved Africans made the French colony of Saint-Domingue the most lucrative European possession in the New World. This wealth was built on plantations employing as many as 200 workers each in the production of coffee, cotton, indigo but especially sugar for the world market. The prosperity of the colony ended in August 1791, when blacks staged a massive rebellion that intensified the revolution that had swept the French Empire for two years. Previously, the revolution in Saint-Domingue had been limited to struggles between white royalists and republicans, and appeals by free people of color for the same civil rights enjoyed by whites.

During the 1790s, Spain and Britain intervened in the revolution in Saint-Domingue, each hoping to claim the rich French colony for itself. A decisive moment occurred in 1794, when Toussaint Louverture, then a local general in the service of Spain, shifted his allegiance to the French Republic, which had recently abolished slavery. Toussaint, who had been born a slave, received widespread support from the black population and became the supreme authority in the colony. In 1802 Napoleon Bonaparte sent a military force to take control of Saint-Domingue. While Toussaint died in a French prison, the French army massacred rebels, sometimes hundreds in a day. Continued fighting, however, forced the French invaders to withdraw in late 1803.

Black generals signed a constitution that established the new nation of Haiti on January 1, 1804. Haiti became the second independent state in the Americas and, as a black republic, helped to inspire further resistance among enslaved populations throughout the hemisphere.

Current state of the residence of Madame de Rocheblave. Saint-Domingue, 1779. This document lists male and female Africans enslaved at the Rocheblave plantation by name, age and, in some cases, occupation. It is possible that some of these individuals participated in the Haitian Revolution, given that the insurrection started in the rich plantation area that included Rocheblave. Proclamation by Toussaint Louverture. Ca. 1801? In this proclamation, General Toussaint Louverture announces that he has taken military control of Saint-Domingue and calls for the creation of a parliament made up of two members from each of the nine major sections of the colony. Letter from Jean-Jacques Dessalines (Général de Division) to General Quantin (in Petite Rivière). October 24, 1802. In this letter local revolutionary general Jean-Jacques Dessalines expresses horror over an order by C.V.E. Leclerc (commander of the Napoleonic forces) against blacks and mulattoes. He states he will defend himself as “a true soldier, a friend of Liberty and his country.” Jean-Louis Dubroca, 1757-ca. 1835. Vida de J. J. Dessalines, gefe de los negros de Santo Domingo. Translated from the French and reprinted by Juan López Cancelada. Mexico: La oficina de D. Mariano de Zúñiga y Ontiveros, 1806. The Haitian Revolution alarmed colonial rulers and planters throughout the hemisphere. This book, published in Mexico in 1806, is a translation of Jean-Louis Dubroca’s condemnation of the revolution, which was published in Paris in 1805.

Next: The Cuban Wars of Independence

Caribbean Collage Home | Introduction
Caribbean Collections at the University of Florida | British Imperialism in the Caribbean
The Haitian Revolution |The Cuban Wars of Independence
U.S. Imperialism in the Caribbean |Credits

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