Slave Revolution — Toussaint L’Ouverture
There are many stories about slavery that we were never taught in school — in particular, one where slaves successfully revolted.
Haiti
Haiti is the west half of an Island in the Caribbean. The other side of the Island is now known as the Dominican Republic. The island was once conquered by the French and by the Spanish, which is why the Island is divided as we know it today.
We can still see the effects of these conquests today because Haitians speak French, and Dominicans Spanish.
Before the island was divided into 2 countries, it was known as Santo Domingo.
Toussaint L’Ouverture
Toussaint Breda, later called Toussaint L’Ouverture, was the leader of the slave revolt in Haiti. He was born a slave in Saint Dominique and learned about Africa from his father, who had been born a free man.
He was considered to be lucky to have a liberal master who trained him as a house servant and allowed him to read and write. Being a house servant, for the most part, was considered to be much better than being a field slave because the work was not as physically demanding.
Cause of Rebellion
In 1793, there was a revolution in France, that was lead by the Jacobins. This group were anti-royalists and they were responsible for the Reign of Terror — a campaign to rid France of “enemies of the revolution”.
Their plans were to take the revolution as far as it could go, and one of the issues they were in support of was “equality”.
The equality that they longed for related to the ideas of the Rights of Man — that all Frenchmen, including free blacks, and mixed-race people, should be equal. This meant that they voted to end slavery in the French colonies.
When the black slaves and freemen in Haiti heard about the Jacobin revolution they were very happy and Toussaint offered to help the French rebel army get rid of the British and the Spanish.
The Problem That Followed
In France, the Jacobins lost power, and their leader was beheaded, ending the Reign of Terror.
Napoleon, who ruled France as a dictator, responded to the pleas of the plantation owners in Santo Domingo and reinstated slavery in the French colonies. Their economy was entirely based on slave labour and they would have been in ruins if slavery were abolished.
The news of this betrayal triggered mass revolts in Santo Domingo.
It’s important to note that majority of colonies whose economies were founded on slavery had a disproportionate number of slaves to their masters — slaves being in the vast majority.
Toussaint became the leader of this rebellion and the black Haitians successfully fought the French, as well as invading the Spanish and British territories of the island.
Successful Major Slave Revolt
It always amazes me that we are taught about the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, but this revolution is seldom mentioned. I won’t get into the heavy details of why I believe that’s the case — but I will say that this revolution was a key element leading to the overall abolishing of slavery in colonies held by European states.
Although, in 1802 he was forced to resign from his position as ‘Governor-General for Life’ in the autonomous nation of Haiti, by forces sent by Napoleon Bonaparte to restore French authority in the former colony. As a result he was deported to France, where he died in 1803 of pneumonia.
The revolution was carried on after his death, and January 1, 1804 marks the date that Haiti declared itself as an independent nation.
This is the only documented case of a slave revolt on such a large scale, that successfully managed to push out the European colonisers and gain their own autonomy.
