Haiti

Summary

The Haitian revolution happened soon after the American Revolution, making Haiti the second republic in the Western Hemisphere, and the only successful slave revolt. The central figure in the revolution is Toussaint L'Ouverture, a great leader, and an upright and moral example to the country. After fighting off the French landowners, the Spanish, the English, and mulatto revolts, he successfully unites the island in a single country in 1801 and gets the races (white, mulatto, and black) to get along. He invites the white landowners back to help educate the freed slaves, who are given land to farm with the help of the landowners for a time to prepare them to live and farm independantly. He established a constitution as a colony of France, and submits it to the French government for approval.

Had this state of affairs continued, Haiti might have regained prosperity and respect as a French colony, since the French Republic had outlawed slavery. But it was not to be. Tragically, Napoleon reinstituted slavery and sent an army to Haiti to bring them back into subjugation. Toussaint was forced to fight against his own country until he could arrange a truce which allowed the blacks to remain free. He then voluntarily stepped down from power. The French betrayed and seized him anyway, took him to France, where he died in a cold French dungeon. This treatment convinced his generals, such as Dessalines, to unite in fighting to gain independence from France, which they succeeded in doing in 1804.

Without France's prestige, no one would trade with a nation of freed slaves, fearing slave revolts elsewhere. France kept sending emissaries to "renegotiate" Haiti's independence, eventually getting them to agree to pay enormous reparations which would take 100 years to pay off. As a result of these things and a series of dictators without Toussaint's moral courage, Haiti is today one of the poorest nations in the world. Nevertheless, Napoleon's defeat convinced him to give up hope of an empire in the west and resulted in his selling Louisiana to the United States for money to fund his wars in Europe.

Essay Assignment

Should the United States have aided Haiti in their revolution, as France helped us in ours?

Document

Memoir of General Toussaint L'Ouverture (attached) Actually the ending summary of a letter written while imprisoned in France, explaining his actions in the wars, and seeking justice from Napoleon.

Other useful documents are the 1801 constitution (of Toussaint) and the 1805 constitution (of Dessalines).

Toussaint Louverture, a biography by Bell, who also wrote a trilogy of historical novels on the Haitian revolution.

Links

Haitian Revolution on Wikipedia

The Louverture Project wiki

A possible future movie about Toussaint L'Ouverture

Toussaint L'Ouverture: A Biography and Autobiography looks interesting.

Article about Haiti's debt