What is the Significance of the Haitian Revolution? More than a translation from Spanish is a corruption. [17], The planters and their families, together with the petite bourgeoisie of merchants and shopkeepers, were outnumbered by slaves by a factor of more than ten on Saint-Domingue. [19] Most slaves spoke a patois of the French language known as Haitian Creole, which was also used by island-born mulattoes and whites for communication with the workers. [86] Rigaud took control of Jeremie without any cost to his forces, as Maitland withdrew his southern forces to Jamaica. [24][115], His successor, the Vicomte de Rochambeau, fought an even more brutal campaign. Prominent wealthy American slave owners, reading about the revolution, also read speculation about what might come in their own states. [63] The British historian Sir John Fortescue wrote, "It is probably beneath the mark to say that twelve thousand Englishmen were buried in the West Indies in 1794". Haiti was Frances wealthiest colony, as you mentioned, so, presumably the government in France did not react well to this uprising. Since white planters refused to comply with this decision, within two months isolated fighting broke out between the former slaves and the whites. Hey Mike. [47] Countries throughout Europe, as well as the United States, were shocked by the decision, but the Assembly was determined to stop the revolt. [18] The introduction to each episode is a clip from the second movement of Joseph Haydn's Symphony 92 (Oxford).[19]. Anti-abolitionist critics of the revolution dubbed it "the horrors of Santo Domingo". [83] On 10 May 1798, Maitland met with Toussaint to agree to an armistice, and on 18 May the British left Port-au-Prince. [139] By an order of 17 April 1825, the King of France renounced his rights of sovereignty over Santo Domingo, and recognized the independence of Haiti. [165] The activities of the revolutions sparked change across the world. [45] The signal to begin the revolt had been given by Dutty Boukman, a high priest of vodou and leader of the Maroon slaves, and Cecile Fatiman during a religious ceremony at Bois Caman on the night of 14 August. Only the less robustthe newly arrived Africans, women in their seventh or eighth month of pregnancy, or nursing infants, and childrengot the lighter jobs. Everyone else was working the land from five a.m. until well after dark, with working hours even longer during harvest times. [71] Fortescue wrote that the aim of the British in the first expedition had been to destroy "the power of France in these pestilent islands only to discover when it was too late, that they practically destroyed the British army". France was not going to let this happen. They were very important predecessors to the Haitian revolution, and they were heavy influences on Haitis freedom fighters. [105] After losing 800 men, Toussaint ordered a retreat. As such, they were demanding their rights as Frenchmen which had been granted by the king. The French colony of Saint-Domingue was the single most lucrative colony in the New World. He managed to force the regime to open up," Montas said. Either in the podcast or in myself :P From Mike's content specifically, Haitian Revolution, Mexican Revolution, and Storm before the Storm definitely changed how I think about politics. Its important to discuss Haiti because of its significance within the narrative of the political revolutions of the 18th century. [126] Many of the workers likened the new labor system to slavery, much like Toussaint L'Ouverture's system, which caused resentment between Dessalines and his people. [106] Just what motivated Toussaint to give up the fight has been the subject of much debate with most probable explanation being that he was just tired after 11 years of war. ", Web pages for FRD Country Studies are subject to changes of URL. [107], In 1802, Napoleon added a Polish legion of around 5,200 to the forces sent to Saint-Domingue to fight off the slave rebellion. 03 April 2017 at 06:45 AM. Louverture overcame a succession of local rivals, including: the Commissioner Sonthonax, a French white man who gained support from many Haitians, angering Louverture; Andr Rigaud, a free man of color who fought to keep control of the South in the War of Knives; and Comte d'Hdouville, who forced a fatal wedge between Rigaud and Louverture before escaping to France. ", http://haitianrevolutionfblock.weebly.com/causes-of-the-haitian-revolution.html./, https://www.pbs.org/marieantoinette/timeline/reign.html, http://scholar.library.miami.edu/slaves/san_domingo_revolution/, "Causes of the Haitian Revolution - Haitian Revolution", "Haitian Revolution (17911804) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed", "Dessaliness Proclamation: Liberty or Death", "From Slave Revolt to a Blood Pact with Satan: The Evangelical Rewriting of Haitian History", Koekkoek, Ren (2020) The Citizenship Experiment Contesting the Limits of Civic Equality and Participation in the Age of Revolutions. For purposes of simplicity, were going to refer to the colony as Haiti here. These valedictory moments assess, with poignant but unsparing clarity, both the rulers who ultimately couldn't save the old order and the revolutionary firebrands . [114] Rochambeau imported about 15,000 attack dogs from Jamaica, who had been trained to savage blacks and mulattoes. White women were "often raped or pushed into forced marriages under threat of death". [158] A huge majority of the supporters of the Haitian revolution were slaves and freed Africans who were severely discriminated against by colonial society and the law. Main, Here is a link to the map if you don't like the embed: The July Revolution Map. If someone misbehavedran away and got caughtthey were usually put to death in a fairly extreme fashion. Sonthonax had proclaimed an end to slavery on 29 August 1792. Posted by: Apart from granting rights to free people of color, the Assembly dispatched 6,000 French soldiers to the island. Haitian Revolution 49 languages Part of a series on the History of Haiti Pre-Columbian Haiti (before 1492) Captaincy General of Santo Domingo (1492-1625) Saint-Domingue (1625-1804) Haitian Revolution First Empire of Haiti (1804-1806) 1804 Haiti massacre Siege of Santo Domingo North Haiti (1806-1820) State of Haiti Kingdom of Haiti The rebels' organizational capacity and tenacity under pressure inspired stories that shocked and frightened slave owners in the hemisphere.[12]. During his reign, nearly 10% of able-bodied men were in active service resulting in a military force of up to 37,000 men. [78] The fleet for the "great push" left Portsmouth on 16 November 1795 and was wrecked by a storm, before sending out again on 9 December. "Reign of Terror: 17931794." In 1789, there was a population of 40,000 whites and 500,000 slaves. The revolution was the only slave uprising that led to the founding of a state which was both free from slavery (though not from forced labour)[4] and ruled by non-whites and former captives. [114] Rochambeau's atrocities helped rally many former French loyalists to the rebel cause. [66], To prevent military disaster, and secure the colony for republican France as opposed to Britain, Spain, and French royalists, separately or in combination, the French commissioners Sonthonax and tienne Polverel offered freedom to the slaves who would agree to fight alongside them. Revolutions Podcast by Mike Duncan - S4: Haitian Revolution - Episode 9 Khwarezmid 3.94K subscribers Subscribe 7.2K views 4 years ago Link (s) to the episode (s):. [53], By 1792, slave rebels controlled a third of Saint-Domingue. All the best. [63] Rigaud failed in attempt to retake Port-au-Prince, but on Christmas Day 1794, he stormed and retook Tiburon in a surprise attack. Copyright 2023 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. [91], After the departure of the British, Toussaint turned his attention to Rigaud, who was conspiring against him in the south of Saint Domingue. More. This allowed certain categories of whites to be excluded from massacre who had to pledge their rejection to France: the Polish soldiers who deserted from the French army; the group of German colonists of Nord-Ouest who were inhabitants before the revolution; French widows who were allowed to keep their property;[132] select male Frenchmen;[136] and a group of medical doctors and professionals. It involved black, biracial, French, Spanish, British, and Polish participantswith the ex-slave Toussaint Louverture emerging as Haiti's most prominent general. [104], In a letter to Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Toussaint outlined his plans for defeating the French: "Do not forget, while waiting for the rainy reason which will rid us of our foes, that we have no other resource than destruction and fire. Most historians classify the people of the era into three groups: The first group were white colonists, or les blancs. By the time the revolution erupted in 1791 hed been a free man for over a decade, meaning he was able to circulate around the island and get a sense of what was going on more broadly. [73] Rather than attacking the main French bases at Le Cap and Port-de-Paix, Whyte chose to march towards Port-au-Prince, whose harbour was reported to have forty-five ships loaded with sugar. [29][pageneeded], Like Louverture, Jean-Baptiste Belley was an active participant in the insurrection. [104] Dessalines never received the letter as he had already taken to the field, evaded a French column sent to capture him and stormed Logne. One British officer wrote of his horror of seeing his friends "drowned in their own blood" while "some died raving Mad". [126] Those that possessed skills outside of plantation work, like craftsmanship and artisans, were exempt from this ordinance. [45] In the south, beginning in September, thirteen thousand slaves and rebels led by Romaine-la-Prophtesse, based in Trou Coffy, took supplies from and burned plantations, freed slaves, and occupied (and burned) the area's two major cities, Logne and Jacmel. [88] British morale had collapsed with the news that Toussaint had taken Port-au-Prince, and Maitland decided to abandon all of Saint-Domingue, writing that the expedition had become such a complete disaster that withdrawal was the only sensible thing to do, even though he did not have the authority to do so. [63], Spain, which controlled the rest of the island of Hispaniola (Santo Domingo), also joined the conflict and fought with Britain against France. 1 September 2012. [119] One of Rochambeau's ships was almost wrecked while leaving the harbour, but was saved by a British lieutenant acting alone, who not only rescued the 900 people on board, but also refloated the ship. [13] The commodity crops were traded for European goods. The second group were free people of color, or gens de couleur libres, who were usually mixed-race (sometimes referred to as mulattoes), being of both African and French descent. After the British had invaded Saint-Domingue, Louverture decided to fight for the French if they would agree to free all the slaves. [43] One such sign was the action of the French revolutionary government to grant citizenship to wealthy free people of color in May 1791. This seems like an incredibly volatile situation to begin with. Workers were given a fourth of all wealth produced from their labor. This is an episode index for Mike Duncan's fabulous Revolutions Podcast. [117] Having sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States in April 1803, Napoleon accepted defeat in his failing ventures in the Western Hemisphere. "The Force of Example". [24] It entered the New York Times best seller list Hardcover Non-Fiction on the eighth place during its first week. [93] To the United States, Rigaud's ties to France represented a threat to American commerce. [95] According to the Encyclopedia of African American Politics, "Between 1791 and independence in 1804 nearly 200,000 blacks died, as did thousands of mulattoes and as many as 100,000 French and British soldiers. In addition to podcasting, Duncan is the author of two historical books. Yet Toussaint Louverture did not stop working with the Spanish Army until sometime later, as he was suspicious of the French. The average life span of a slave in Haiti was 7 years. However, the Poles were told that there was a revolt of prisoners in Saint-Domingue. Rochambeau waged a near-genocidal campaign against the Haitians, killing everyone who was black. Accessed 25 March 2015. Within the first couple of years, Toussaint LOuverture arose as a leader. [36] The lower-class whites, petits blancs (literally "small whites"), included artisans, shopkeepers, slave dealers, overseers, and day laborers. Finally, in 1801, Napoleon Bonaparte decided that the rebellion in Haitinow having dragged on for a decadeneeded to be put down once and for all. [55] A new governor sent by Paris, Lger-Flicit Sonthonax, abolished slavery in the Northern Province and had hostile relations with the planters, whom he saw as royalists. In 1801, Louverture issued a constitution for Saint-Domingue that decreed he would be governor-for-life and called for black autonomy and a sovereign black state. Taking no prisoners, Rigaud's predominantly mulatto forces put blacks and whites to the sword. [14] The livelihood of 1 million of the approximately 25 million people who lived in France in 1789 depended directly upon the agricultural imports from Saint-Domingue, and several million indirectly depended upon trade from the colony to maintain their standard of living. The series covered the English Civil War, the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Haitian Revolution, Simon Bolivar and Gran Colombia, the July Revolution, the Revolutions of 1848, the Paris Commune, the Mexican Revolution, and finally the Russian Revolution, ending its run of narrative episodes in July 2022. Production of sugar depended on extensive manual labor provided by enslaved Africans. The Haitian Revolution. [14], The colony's white population numbered 40,000; mulattoes and free blacks, 28,000; and black slaves, an estimated 452,000. LS 77 Global Rank TOP 0.01% ABOUT THIS PODCAST A weekly podcasting exploring great political revolutions. Geggus points out that at least 3 of every 5 British troops sent there in 17911797 died of disease. [65] However, everywhere the British went, they restored slavery, which made them hated by the mass of common people. The comedy podcast that takes history seriously is back with a new series. Enslaved blacks watched from the sidelines.[18]. 07 December 2015 at 11:56 AM. Michael William Duncan is an American political history podcaster and author. [12] Each season was dedicated to one revolution or revolutionary wave and discussed the revolution through a chronological narrative approach, as in his podcast The History of Rome, but the shorter time periods and longer episode length for each season allowed greater detail for individual events. [114] Dessalines marched into Port-au-Prince, where he was welcomed as a hero by the 100 whites who had chosen to stay behind. The name of the Spanish side, Santo Domingo, would be literally translated as "Holy Sunday" and in French it would be "Saint Dimanche". Dessalines paid large sums of money to liberate slaves on slave ships near the Haitian coast. [114] Trapped, engaged in a vicious race war, and with much of his army dying of yellow fever, Rochambeau fell to pieces. The indemnity bankrupted the Haitian treasury and left the country's government deeply impoverished, causing long-term instability. This was a special, public punishment dealt out because the whites in Haiti didnt want to extend full rights to the gens de couleur. [54] The success of the rebellion caused the National Assembly to realize it was facing an ominous situation. [105] During the battle, Toussaint personally took part in the fighting to lead his men in charges against the French. From that ceremony, they set out and attacked plantations, burn them down, and kill all of the white planters they came across. There was a growing population of affranchis, which were freed blacks or freed slaves, and then what were called gens de couleur, or people of color. In October 1790, another wealthy free man of color, Vincent Og, demanded the right to vote under the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Spanish forces invaded Saint-Domingue and were joined by the rebels. I wasn't sure if I was going to be as interested in this one, but you've set the stage so well that I'm already getting sucked in. Two representatives went to France to try to demand these rights, and when they came back to Haiti, they were beaten to death in the town square. Toussaint retook the fortress at Mirebalais. The largest sugar plantations and concentrations of slaves were in the north of the islands, and whites lived in fear of slave rebellion. The revolution of African slaves brought many fears to colonies surrounding Haiti and the Caribbean. | 4.02- The Web of Tension . The Haitian Revolution, which took place between 1791-1804, is significant because Haiti is the only country where slave freedom was taken by force. A limited amount, he concludes, for slavery flourished in the western hemisphere for many more decades. Nevertheless, he succeeded in rebuilding much of the country and in raising production levels, thus slowly rebuilding the economy.[126]. In addition, the French employed cruel punishment techniques. John S. Marr, and John T. Cathey. [28], Duncan's second book, Hero of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution, is a biography about the Marquis de Lafayette during the American and French revolutions and their aftermaths. The third group, outnumbering the others by a ratio of ten to one, was made up of mostly African-born slaves. While Haiti suffered major economic setbacks during the early years of the post revolutionary era, the ideals of freedom and anti-colonialism never ceased to be part of the Haitian consciousness. Mulatto domination of politics and economics, and urban life after the revolution, created a different kind of two-caste society, as most Haitians were rural subsistence farmers. [83][85], In July 1797, Simcoe and Maitland sailed to London to advise a total withdrawal from Saint-Domingue. [5] Duncan also occasionally creates political comic strips in collaboration with illustrator Jason Novak.[6]. A year later he began Revolutions, which ran for ten seasons over the course of nine years, covering the American, French, and Russian revolutions, among others. [16] As slaves had no legal rights, rape by planters, their unmarried sons, or overseers was a common occurrence on the plantations. The revolt began on 22 August 1791,[3] and ended in 1804 with the former colony's independence. Then, under pressure, they gradually emancipated all the slaves of the colony. [94] They were under secret instructions to restore slavery, at least in the formerly Spanish-held part of the island. [14] They used the threat and acts of physical violence to maintain control and suppress efforts at rebellion. [35], In July 2022, Duncan released, through his Revolutions podcast, a one-man table read of a script he created for a proposed Marquis de Lafayette TV show. "So much was done in Haiti because of him. Enjoy! In 1758, the planters began passing legislation restricting the rights of other groups of people until a rigid caste system was defined. [119] On 3 November, the frigate HMS Blanche captured a supply schooner near Cap Franais, the last hope in supplying the French forces. This is an episode index for Mike Duncan's fabulous Revolutions Podcast. King Louis issued the Code Noir in 1685 to regulate slavery and punishment, but it was never really followed in the colony. 03 April 2017 at 10:09 AM. Since the resistance and the murderous disease environment made it impossible for Napoleon to regain control over Haiti, he gave up hope of rebuilding a French New World empire. What is the Significance of the Haitian Revolution? On 20 September 1793, about 600 British soldiers from Jamaica landed at Jrmie to be greeted with shouts of, "Vivent les Anglais!" [106] Louverture was promised his freedom if he agreed to integrate his remaining troops into the French army. Louverture was very intelligent, organized and articulate. Dcolonisations - Hati Mar 26, 2023. [101] Once that was completed, slavery would be ultimately restored. [79] Forbes's attempt to take the French-held city of Logne ended in disaster. [25] Raynal's Enlightenment philosophy went deeper than a prediction and reflected many similar philosophies, including those of Rousseau and Diderot. [33], Duncan appears as a panel historian on seasons two and three of the Netflix documentary Roman Empire,[34] and was a historical consultant for The Simpsons' episode I, Carumbus. Saint-Domingue's free people of color, or gens de couleur libres, numbered more than 28,000. [164] The Enlightenment ideals and the initiation of the French Revolution were enough to inspire the Haitian Revolution, which evolved into the most successful and comprehensive slave rebellion in history. David Geggus, "The British Army and the Slave Revolt". [164] Just as the French were successful in transforming their society, so were the Haitians. There never again was such a large-scale slave rebellion. His theory was that if French forces were able to capture Toussaint LOuverture everything else would fall apart afterward. You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post. Everyone in the colony was paying attention to what was going on in France. [71], The main British force for the conquest of Saint-Domingue under General Charles Grey, nicknamed "No-flint Grey", and Admiral Sir John Jervis set sail from Portsmouth on 26 November 1793, which was in defiance of the well-known rule that the only time that one could campaign in the West Indies was from September to November, when the mosquitoes that carried malaria and yellow fever were scarce. Barred from using the whip, many instead turned to lianes, which were thick vines abundant throughout the island, to persuade the laborers to keep working. The end of French rule and the abolition of slavery in the former colony was followed by a successful defense of the freedoms the former slaves won and, with the collaboration of already free people of color, their independence from white Europeans. 21 Revolutions Podcast - Glasgow Women's Library. Then there were the petit blancs, or the Little Whites. These were tradespeople: shopkeepers, merchants, overseers, the former indentured servants who had gotten their freedom and now worked in smaller aspects of the economy. Big fan! Posted by: Greg Jenner is joined by Professor Marlene Daut and comedian Athena Kugblenu to examine the events and aftermath of the revolution in Haiti, the first nation to abolish slavery. The British force that landed in Saint-Domingue in 1793 was too small to conquer the colony, being capable only of holding only few coastal enclaves. [105] Dessalines appeared before his men standing atop of a barrel of gunpowder, holding a lit torch, saying: "We are going to be attacked, and if the French put their feet in here, I shall blow everything up", leading his men to reply "We shall die for liberty!". [104] Captain Marcus Rainsford, a British Army officer who visited Saint-Domingue observed the training of the Haitian Army, writing: "At a whistle, a whole brigade ran three or four hundred yards, and then, separating, threw themselves flat on the ground, changing to their backs and sides, and all the time keeping up a strong fire until recalledThis movement is executed with such facility and precision as totally to prevent cavalry from charging them in bushy and hilly country". In addition, Haiti was the first country in Latin America to gain independence, second only to the United States in the Americas as a whole. And boy did it get messy. The Haitian State owned up to 90% of the land and the other 10% was leased in 5-year intervals. [147] In the opposing camp, African American historian W. E. B. Much of Caribbean economic development in the 18th century was contingent on Europeans' demand for sugar. In a Wall Street Journal article Johnson states: "The stories have a lot of similarities. Over seven years and more than 300 episodes of Duncan's gripping and well-researched Revolutions podcast, he has seen off many crowned heads and erstwhile revolutionary leaders. State of the Revolution. In the 1660s, the French began to settle in the west part of the island, and they established a colony. Share. Both of these racially charged symbols reveal the desire to undermine the colony's attempts at independent legitimacy, as citizens of the colonies were not able to access the elite class of French Revolutionaries because of their race. It was the only successful slave revolt in modern times. The French historian Paul Fregosi wrote: "Whites, mulattos and blacks loathed each other. [94] The numerous French soldiers were accompanied by mulatto troops led by Alexandre Ption and Andr Rigaud, mulatto leaders who had been defeated by Toussaint three years earlier. 06 April 2017 at 12:46 PM, 6.03- Help Yourself And Heaven Will Help You. John | [124][125] The country, therefore, had to be rebuilt. "Teaching the Haitian Revolution: Its Place in Western and Modern World History". [63] Of Grey's 7,000 men, about 5,000 died of yellow fever while the Royal Navy reported losing "forty-six masters and eleven hundred men dead, chiefly of yellow fever". Revolutions Podcast by Mike Duncan - S4: Haitian Revolution - Episode 19 7,324 views Jun 20, 2018 83 Dislike Share Khwarezmid 3.67K subscribers Link (s) to the episode (s):. He dispatched a force under Major General Gordon Forbes to Port-au-Prince. John E. Baur honors Haiti as home of the most influential revolution in history.[166]. The Haitian Revolution was a successful insurrection by self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue, now the sovereign state of Haiti. The mulattoes who returned to Saint-Domingue became the elite of the people of color. Baur, John. Bear in mind that the soil bathed with our sweat must not furnish our enemies with the smallest sustenance. Some had identified more with the French colonists than the slaves. [61][62] The American journalist James Perry notes that the great irony of the British campaign in Saint-Domingue was that it ended as a complete debacle, costing the British treasury millions of pounds and the British military thousands upon thousands of dead, all for nothing. [106] With March, the rainy season came to Saint-Domingue, and as stagnant water collected, the mosquitoes began to breed, leading to yet another outbreak of yellow fever. Joan Dayan, Haiti, History and the Gods (University of California Press, 1998) Laurent Dubois, Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution (Harvard University Press, 2004). The book was published 24 August 2021 and in September of that same year, it reached number three on the New York Times Bestseller List. He is an avid fan of the Seattle Mariners baseball team. [104] The Haitians burned down Logne and killed all of the French with the Trinidadian historian C. L. R. James writing of Dessalines's actions at Logne: "Men, women and children, indeed all the whites who came into his hands, he massacred. [83] Service in Saint-Domingue was extremely unpopular in the British Army owing to the terrible death toll caused by yellow fever. However, some masters tolerated petit marronages, or short-term absences from plantations, knowing these allowed release of tensions. The island was known at the time by the Tano Indians as Hay-ti, which meant mountainous place. In the 1500s, the Spaniards began to settle the eastern part of the island, where they began sugar production in 1516. The podcast covered modern political revolutions, beginning with the English Revolution. Season 1 - The Work Revolution. [64] On 22 September 1793, Mole St. Nicolas, the main French naval base in Saint-Domingue, surrendered to the Royal Navy peacefully. Essentially, the owners were OK with working their slaves to death, or punishing them with death, and buying more slaves. Slave boats that were captured and brought to Haiti's shores resulted in the liberation and integration of all captives on board into Haitian society. Nearly two thirds of those slaves were African born. A self-described "complete history geek",[2] his love for history grew from an interest in ancient civilizations as a child, with a particular affinity for Roman history. Starting in the 1730s, French engineers constructed complex irrigation systems to increase sugarcane production. [10] The project turned into an award-winning weekly podcast which aired for 179 episodes until 2012 and was downloaded more than 100 million times.[8][10]. The grands blancs in Saint-Domingue, unhappy with Sonthonax, arranged with Britain to declare British sovereignty over the colony, believing that the British would maintain slavery. So this further inflamed things. On one occasion, President Alexandre Petion protected Jamaican slaves from re-enslavement after they escaped their plantation and landed in the southern city of Jrmie. [Update: I also now realize you can't get the street view guy on this map but you should still go drop in on Place Joachim du Bellay to get an idea of what this all looked like. There were far more Africans than Europeans, so they would separate out the slaves. Louverture agreed to this on 6 May 1802.
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