In August 1791, slaves in the French colony of Saint-Domingue revolted, rising up by the thousands. Within ten days they’ve taken over the whole northern province. By the following year, they controlled a third of the colony. It was the spark that would ignite the Haitian revolution — a 13-year-long endeavour. Independence would finally come on January 1, 1804. But they would have to defeat three European countries to get there.
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Transcript
Michael Fox, narrator:
This is a story they don’t want you to hear about a slave revolt that sparked a revolution and a new nation. About a people rising up and freeing themselves. And then fighting off not one, but three of the most powerful militaries in the world. A story about the first independent country in the Americas after the United States, and a people who would not stop fighting until they were free.
A story about the freedom and Independence of Haiti.
The year is 1791. The place, Saint-Domingue. It’s a French colony in the Caribbean on the western half of the island of Hispaniola. Saint-Domingue is known as the “Pearl of the Antilles” for its beauty and riches. The colony produces roughly 60% of the world’s coffee and 40% of the sugar imported by France and Britain. It is the most profitable colony in all of the Caribbean.
But it is also one of the most disastrous. That’s because the wealth is generated by a system of slavery that is brutal, severe and massive. Almost half of the one million slaves in the Caribbean at the time are laboring in Saint-Domingue. Black slaves make up almost 90% of the colony’s population. Most are African born. They’re ruled over by a small group of white landowners. They’re forced to work to the bone. Literally to the death. And yellow fever outbreaks wreak havoc on their communities.
When people die, more are kidnapped from Africa to be sent across the ocean to labor to the death to make ever more profit for the rich and the powerful.
In August 1791, however, they had had enough. They revolt on August 21. They rise up by the thousands, killing their oppressors. Within 10 days they’ve taken over the whole northern province. But white landowners respond, creating militias and killing thousands of former slaves.
The slave revolt spreads. 100,000 former African slaves join. By the next year, they control a third of Saint-Domingue.
They’re inspired by France’s 1789 Constitutional ”Declaration of the Rights of Man,” which declared all men free and equal, though it did not free slaves across the French colonies. It was only the beginning of the slave revolt that sparked a revolution that would take 13 years to be fulfilled.
Former slaves Georges Biassou, Jean-François Papillon, and Toussaint Louverture would become important freedom fighters, first against the white landowners and the system of slavery and then against foreign occupiers and then against the French.
Both the British and the Spanish would invade and occupy the colony. The Spanish promised freedom to those who fought on their side, and many joined, including most of the rebellion’s leaders. The French, however, proclaimed the abolition of slavery in 1794, and Toussaint Louverture switched sides — again fighting for the French.
In the subsequent years, Louverture would rid Saint-Domingue of the Spanish and then the British, establishing control over most of the colony. In 1801, Louverture and others wrote their own Constitution explicitly outlawing slavery, and declaring Louverture governor-general for life.
But it did not declare Saint-Domingue’s independence. Louverture tried to convince French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte of his loyalty. It did not go well.
Bonaparte sent in tens of thousands of troops to occupy the colony in 1802. They arrested and deported Louverture to France alongside a hundred of his closest allies. He would die there in prison the next year.
Saint-Domingue independence fighter Jean-Jacques Dessalines would defeat the French in 1803, after their forces were decimated by yellow fever. He declared the country’s independence on January 1, 1804.
They called it Haiti, the original name for the island for the native Taíno people.
A slave revolt that became a revolution and founded a new nation, 13 years in the making. The first country in Latin America to gain its freedom. The only country to win independence from a slave revolt. Hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children freed.
Hi folks, thanks for listening. I’m your host Michael Fox.
Last Saturday, August 23, was the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. The date is a commemoration of Haiti’s 1791 uprising that sparked the revolution that abolished slavery in Haiti and would lead to the country’s independence.
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This is the latest episode of Stories of Resistance, a podcast series produced by The Real News. Each week, I bring you stories of resistance and hope like this. Inspiration for dark times. If you like what you hear, please subscribe, like, share, comment, or leave a review.
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This content originally appeared on The Real News Network and was authored by Michael Fox.