Seventeenth to Early Nineteenth Century, Essay Example

This paper provides empirical research, eye witness observation, of the events that took place leading up to the Haitian Revolution between 1791-1804. This is a momentous event in the history of Haiti. The paper describes the brutal conflict that took place in Saint Dominique. The elimination of slavery and the establishment of the African as a new nation in the New World.  The paper is split into four distinct parts:  (1) Background to the revolution (2)  The events that took place  (3) The outcome of the revolution and (4) Summary.  The account is based upon a Haitian Farmer who took part in the revolution and described the events to his brother in Lagos, Nigeria.

Dear brother, I am writing to inform you of a wondrous event has happened in my new home of St. Dominique in the Caribbean island of Haiti.  As you know, we have been living under French colonial rule for some time now.  Most of the people working in slavery plantations after being forcibly removed from our homelands in Africa.  On 22 August 1791, of brothers rose up to fight the French oppressors and the colony was plunged into civil war.  We have planned of the writing for many months, and as such you are strong of numbers, a hundred thousand people and we were well armed.  Within two months we have killed over 4000 white people and destroyed over 180 sugar, coffee and indigo plantations.  By the  time , 1792 arrived slave population control, the third of the island.  The French realizing the impossibility of the situation  granted both civil and political rights to the slaves of the revolution.  As we entered 1793.  France declared war on Britain and the white planters rushed to support British sovereignty on the islands.  Spain then allied with Britain against France, and by August there were only 3 1/2 thousand French soldiers left on the island.  The French in an effort to avoid military disaster, freed the slaves and by 1794 we have abolished slavery and the black people have been granted civil and political rights of the colonists.  It was not without cost though  brother and we lost 100,000 of our people, together with 24,000 white people killed.   ” Deep in the roots of the revolution  is the slavery system that made St.Dominique one of the richest colonies in France”  (Baur Apr 1970).

It is important to recognize the achievements of wealth that had been made in Haiti.  We have developed over 8000 plantation, with visas obtained by the French royal governors.  793 were given to sugar, 3154 to  indigo 3117 to  coffee and 789 to cotton.  We also produced cacao, mixed crops and other food materials.  The sugar we were producing  was nearly 11/2 times that of the British West Indies.  (Lacerte Apr 1978).  The Mulattas had benefited from ‘Colberts Coder Noir(1685) .  In this sector being different.  The same rights and privileges as those born free.  They had property rights and focused mainly on sugar and coffee plantation.

The land now has a new name, ‘Haiti’, will no longer Hispaniola but a true nature of Haitian people.  There is a real sense of freedom and liberation here as we are delivered from the bondage of slavery; now in charge of our destiny in this new land.  We have already heard that our revolutionary cause, is having a widespread effect across the neighbouring Caribbean Islands and Cuba.  Nobody ever believed that this could become a political and economic reality.  An English Captain Marcus Rainsford said the following on the revolution ” the event may powerfully impact  the condition of the human race; yet it is an ordinary succession of triumphs and defeats; interrupted only by new and terrible afflictions”  (Fischer 2004).  He was referring to the fact that a so-called enlightened Europe would not believe that a  group of Negroes were capable of putting down their enemies and freeing themselves from the bondage of slavery.  Samuel Huntington has stated that we have created a lone state by relinquishing our ties with France.  He refers to the new nation, adopting free old language, voodoo religion and ties to slave origins.  It appears that the new country will have to fight for recognition in line with its newfound independence.

Foreigners did not seem to be clear on what has stated goals were.  Our prime goal was to free this new land of Haiti from slavery forever.  We have feared that they may use the Spanish part of the island to launch a new innovation again does have push us  back into the bondage that we have liberated ourselves from.  We also required more land so that this could be evenly and fairly distributed amongst our soldiers of the revolution.  Another factor leading up to the revolution is that the slave owners had no sense of guilt or shame for the harsh treatment of the slaves under their command.  They justified their brutal actions by saying it was for the education of the slaves.  They failed to recognize that we were not willing slaves of people that have been captured, brutally treated and abducted to this foreign land from our native Africa.  It was hardly surprised when a black army arrested, the French officers executed a terrible revenge against them by publicly hanging them.

Our antislavery movement is having an important impact on the French Revolution and the war in Europe.  The new revolution in France was based upon the concept of liberty, equality and fraternity and the uniting of the social classes in France.  It was a far cry from the treatment of slaves in the Caribbean and America’s where it was more a case of bondage, inequality and prejudice.  The French Revolution adopted the concept of antislavery and antiracism and this is considered to be highly influenced by the events in the Caribbean.  The Caribbean islands have long been a battleground for political power struggle between the British, French, Dutch and Spanish armies.  Each struggled  to gain their largest share of the wealth at the expense of the other.  The continued expansionism and plundering of the islands led to repeated conflicts.  The slaves were considered mere pawns in a game of political manoeuvring.  Our revolutionary armies benefited from the defection of black troops that had been enlisted into the second West India Regiment.  The black troops enlisted in the British Army had no real legal status.  So they were always under the threat of being sold back into slavery.  The British are training our soldiers well and as such, they passed this  training  onto others in our campaign.

The French needed to realize that the levels of brutality were not in the streets of Paris  but in Saint Dominique.  The French had attempted to destroy entire race of people by placing them into slavery.  The French equally never took time to understand the cultural, religion, all beliefs of the slaves that they imported to the plantations of Haiti.  The people were treated as sub humans, and the answer to any challenge was to lash.

Our liberation in Haiti is reported to have been less well received in the Americas, and particularly the tobacco plantations of Virginia.  The reporting exaggerated the impact to the whites in the revolution.  This made slave owners in the Americas fearful of uprising and rebellions; for fear of what had happened to the French in St. Dominique.  The papers reported that all the whites could expect from free slaves would be a vicious retaliation against them.  The southern American colonies and Virginia believe that the slaves were incapable of being educated and  as such civilized.  Hence the events that happened in Haiti must never happen in the Americas.  Haiti  has now become a symbol of freedom for slaves throughout the Caribbean and the Americas.  The founding of a black Republic in the world has  given the  people a sense of renewed hope and black and nationalistic pride.  A message is clearly being made to the Americans in order to abolish slavery or face a potential Armageddon at the hands of a vengeful race of slaves.  Haiti is a realistic indication to  what may happen to the American colonies in the future.

Leaders of the revolution were Jean Francois and Bussau.  They were supported by other  slaves came from over 200 sugar plantations .  They were both well armed and well organized.  They were determined to decide their own fate and destiny and moved swiftly once the rebellion commenced.  They freed other slaves and organized them quickly into the movement.  Most of the victims were soldiers, plantation owners and those supporting slavery.  The genocide that followed became a sort of class warfare and racial conflict between Europeans the Backs and Mulattoes.  The black army waged a concept of total warfare with the same intensity of the Europeans who had enslaved them. The leader Dessadines hung  500 French officers in plain sight of the French army.  The black army felt that exacting vengeance was a necessary part of achieving freedom.  Dessadines  put into place a free Haiti lasted for 150 years.

Works Cited

Baur, John E. “International Repercussions of the Haitian Revolution.” The Americas Vol 26, Apr 1970: 394-418 .

Fischer, Sibylle. Modernity discovered, Haiti and culture of slavery. USA: Duke University Press, 2004.

Lacerte, Robert K. “The Evolution of Land and Labor in the Haitian Revolution, 1791-1820.” The Americas, Vol. 34, No. 4, Apr 1978: 449-459 .