The Haitian Revolution

Ref: Wikipedia. The Haitian Revolution. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian_Revolution 

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Summary

  • The history of the Haitian Revolution from Wikipedia.

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Terminology

  • Maroons: Runaway slaves.

  • Mulattoes: Free people of color.

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Resources

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Chronology

  • 17 Apr, 1825: French King Charles X renounces the rights of sovereignty over Saint-Domingue, recognizes Haiti’s independence, and orders Haiti to pay 150M gold Francs in reparations to French ex-slaveholders. Fearing a future war with France, Haitian President Jean-Pierre Boyer, agrees to the pay the debt. Although the amount is reduced to 90M Francs in 1838, Haiti is unable to pay off its debts until 1947 (Wiki).

  • 8-10 Jan, 1811: The German Coast slave uprising in Louisiana is violently put down. The punishment the slaves received was so severe that no contemporary news reports about it exist (Wiki).

  • 1807: Haiti is divided in two parts; the Rep. of Haiti in the South, and the Kingdom of Haiti in the North; land could not be privately owned with all land reverting to the state (Wiki).

  • 17 Oct, 1806: Haitian Emperor Dessalines is assassinated by his revolutionary allies Henri Cristophe and Alexandre Sabes Pétion (ebsco.com).

  • Feb- 22 Apr, 1804: Haitian General Dessalines orders the massacre of Haiti’s remaining white population, killing ~3000-5000 with women and children being killed last and many women raped or pushed into forced marriages under threat of death. Dessalines secretary, Boisrond Tonnerre states “for our declaration of independence, we should have the skin of a white man for parchment, his skull for an inkwell, his blood for ink, and a bayonet for a pen” (Wiki).

  • 1 Jan, 1804: Haitian General Dessalines declares Saint-Domingue’s independence, renaming it “Haiti” after the indigenous Arawak name. Haiti was the first independent nation in Latin America, the first post-colonial independent black-led nation in the world, and the only nation whose independence was gained as part of a successful slave rebellion. To rebuild the war turned nation, Dessalines institutes serfdom with every citizen being either a soldier or a laborer, with all laborers bound to a plantation. To avoid the appearance of slavery, Dessalines abolishes the whip and shortens the working day by a third. Barred from using the whip, many plantation owners turned to lianes- thick vines abundant throughout the island (Wiki).

  • 21 August, 1791- 1 Jan, 1804: The Haitian Revolution; a slave rebellion led primarily by ex-slave General Toussaint Louverture defeats French, Spanish, and British forces on Saint-Domingue, at the time the most profitable French colony in the world, and ends with the establishment of the Rep. of Haiti. The revolution was the largest slave uprising since Spartacus’ unsuccessful revolt against the Roman Rep nearly 1900 years earlier and is one of the only known slave rebellions in history that led to the founding of a state. The revolutions effects on the institutions of slavery were felt throughout the Americas. Haiti suffers ~200K dead, France 75K with 25K dead white colonists, and Britain 45K (Wiki).

    • 30 Nov, 1803: 8000 French soldiers and hundreds of white civilians depart Saint-Domingue on British ships (Wiki).

    • 18 Nov, 1803: The Battle of Vertières (the last land battle of the Haitian revolution) is fought near Cap-Haïtien. Haitian forces led by Dessalines defeat French forces led by Rochambeau. Rochambeau later surrenders to the British (Wiki).

    • 3 Nov, 1803: The British Frigate HMS Blanche captures a supply schooner near Cape Français, the last hope in supplying the French forces (Wiki).

    • 8 October, 1803: The French abandon Port-au-Prince as Rochambeau decided to concentrate his army at Le Cap. Dessalines marched into Port-au-Prince, where he was welcomed as a hero by the 100 whites who had chosen to stay behind. Dessalines had the 100 whites all hanged (Wiki).

    • 18 May, 1803: The French and British go to war. French reinforcements to Rochambeau are diverted for the war effort against England while the English order Jamaican naval forces to destroy French forces in and around Saint-Domingue while stopping reinforcements from reaching Rochambeau. The British begin arming the Haitians. Tapped, engaged in a vicious race war, and with much of his army dying of yellow fever, Rochambeau fell to pieces. He lost interest in commanding his army and as James wrote, he "amused himself with sexual pleasures, military balls, banquets and the amassing of a personal fortune (Wiki).

    • Nov, 1802: French expeditionary commander Leclerc dies of Yellow Fever. General Rochambeau assumes command of French forces and wages a near-genocidal campaign against the Haitians killing everyone who was black. Hearing of the losses of French forces to Yellow Fever, Bonaparte sends ~20K reinforcements to Rochambeau. Both sides resort to genocidal warfare and acts of cruelty (Wiki).

    • Oct, 1802: Haitian rebel leaders Dessalines and Christophe switch sides, and continue the fight against French forces. Leclerc, dying of Yellow Fever, orders all of the blacks living in Le Cap to be killed by drowning in the harbor. In Nov, 1802, Leclerc dies of Yellow fever (Wiki).

    • 1802: Napoleon adds a 5200-man Polish legion to French forces on Saint-Domingue. Some of this force would later join the rebels and fight against the French (Wiki).

    • Jul, 1802: After a couple quiet months, it becomes apparent that the French intend to re-establish slavery, forcing blacks on the island to step up the revolt (Wiki).

    • 6 May, 1802: Haitian rebel General Louverture agrees to an armistice with Leclerc. Under the terms of surrender, Leclerc gave his solemn word that slavery would not be restored in Saint-Domingue, that blacks could be officers in the French Army, that blacks could be officers in the French Army, and that the Haitian Army would be allowed to integrate into the French Army. Leclerc also gave Louverture a plantation at Ennery. Louverture was deceived, seized, and shipped to France. He died months later at Fort-de-Joux in the Jura Mountains. Shortly after, Dessalines rode into Le Cap and surrendered to France and was rewarded by being made the governor of Saint-Marc, a place that Dessalines ruled with customary cruelty. The surrender of Christophe, Toussaint, and Dessalines did not mean the end of Haitian resistance. Throughout the countryside, guerilla warfare continued (Wiki).

    • 25 Apr, 1802: Cristophe and his Haitian army defect to the French. Louverture is promised his freedom if he agrees to integrate his remaining troops into the French Army (Wiki).

    • Spring-Summer, 1802: French troops are ravaged by Yellow Fever, suffering upwards of 10K dead (Wiki).

    • Mar, 1802: The Battle of Crête-à-Pierrot; three French columns attack and fail to take the Haitian fort of Crête-à-Pierrot, under the command of Dessalines. Following 20 days of siege and with supplies running low, Dessalines orders his troops to abandon the fort (24 Mar, 1802). After the battle, the Haitians abandon conventional warfare and revert to Guerrilla tactics (Wiki).

    • 1802: The Battle of Ravine-à-Couleuvres; French forces led by General Rochambeau defeat Haitian forces led by Toussaint (Wiki).

    • 2 Feb, 1802: French forces led by Leclerc arrive in Le Cap and order Haitian Commander Henri Christophe to turn over the city to the French. When Christophe refused, the French assaulted Le Cap and the Haitians set the city ablaze (Wiki).

    • 1801: Haitian rebel General Louverture issues a constitution for Saint-Domingue, decreeing he would be governor-for-life and calling for Black autonomy and a sovereign black state. In response, Bonaparte dispatches a large expeditionary force led by his brother-in-law, Charles Leclerc, to restore French rule. They were under secret instructions to restore slavery, at least in the formerly Spanish held part of the island (Santo Domingo). Bonaparte ordered that Toussaint was to be summoned to Le Cap and arrested; if he failed to show, Leclerc was to wage “a war to the death” with no mercy. Once complete, slavery was to be restored (Wiki).

    • Dec, 1800: Haitian forces led by Louverture invade Spanish Santo Domingo, freeing the slaves there on 3 Jan, 1801 (Wiki).

    • 31 August, 1798: British forces led by Maitland and Louverture sign an agreement whereby in exchange for the British pulling out of all of Saint-Domingue, Toussaint promised not to “meddle in the affairs of Jamaica.” Toussaint consolidates his control over Saint-Domingue and, although loyal to France, rules the island as its dictator (Wiki).

    • 1796-1798: The British “Great Push”; ~30K British soldiers on 200 ships attempt to re-take Saint-Domingue but are ravaged by Yellow Fever. The force withdraws by 18 May, 1798 (Wiki).

    • 1794: Most of the British force on Saint-Domingue are killed by yellow fever (“black vomit”- British) with ~5000 of 7000 dying from the disease (Wiki).

    • 6 May, 1794: Haitian rebel General Louverture betrays his Spanish allies and joins the French cause, ambushing them as they emerge from mass in a church at San Raphael. Shortly after, the Haitians expel the Spanish from Saint-Domingue (Wiki).

    • 4 Feb, 1794: Louis Duffay, a free Black Army Officer, gives a speech to the French convention arguing for the abolish of slavery. The convention duties agreed and decreed that “slavery of the blacks is abolished in all the colonies”; consequently, it decrees that all men living in the colonies, without distinction of color, are French citizens and enjoy all the rights guaranteed by the constitution (Wiki).

    • 29 October, 1793: Sonthonax, the French commissioner to Saint-Domingue, proclaims the abolition of slavery in the Northern Province. Two days later, Etienne Polverel abolishes slavery in the Western and Southern provinces (Wiki).

    • 1792: Haitian rebels control a third of Saint-Domingue which forces the French National Assembly to act. The assembly grants civil and political rights to free men of color in the French Colonies in Mar, 1792; a decision which shocks countries throughout Europe and the US (Wiki).

    • Sep, 1791: A 13K rebel force led by Romaine-la-Prophétesse, based in Troy Coffy, takes supplies and burns plantations, freeing slaves and occupying Léogâne and Jacmel (Wiki).

    • 21 Aug, 1791: The Haitian revolution begins; thousands of slaves attend a secret voodoo ceremony as a tropical storm approaches- the lighting and thunder taken as auspicious omens. Later that night, the slaves begin to kill their masters, plunging the colony into civil war. The signal to begin the revolt was given by Dutty Boukman, a high priest of voodoo and leader of the maroon slaves, and Cecile Fatiman during a religious ceremony at Bois Caïman on the night of 14 Aug. By the end of August, slaves had taken control of the entire Northern Province. The revolt was marked by extreme violence- pillage, rape, torture, mutilation, and death (Wiki).

  • May, 1791: The French revolutionary government grants citizenship to wealthy mulattoes. White French planters in the Caribbean refuse to comply. Isolated fighting breaks out between former slaves and whites (Wiki).

  • Oct, 1790: Vincent Ogé, a free person of color in Saint-Domingue, demands the right to vote under the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, and is refused. In response, he leads a brief 300-man insurgency around Le Cap. He is captured in 1791 and brutally executed by being “broken on the wheel” before being beheaded (Wiki).

  • 1758: French planters on Saint-Domingue (Haiti) pass legislation restricting the rights of groups of people until a rigid caste system evolves. Three main groups emerged- white colonists (les blancs), free people of color (mulattoes), and African born slaves (Wiki).

  • 1751: French authorities move Saint-Domingue’s (Haiti’s) capital from Le Cap to Port-au-Prince (Wiki).

  • 1685: French King Louis XIV passes the Code Noir in an attempt to regulate violence against slaves (Wiki).

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