Unit 3: Haitian Revolution

The Haitian Revolution

Overview: 

I have taught this unit in a few different formats, as part of a course that asked students to think about questions of development through a comparison of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, as well as in a course that asked student to think critically about revolutions. The goal for this unit is to investigate the meaning of freedom. Difficult and stark choices were made during the events known today as the Haitian Revolution. This unit hopes to push students to think critically about the different choice maker and players involve in this historic moment and understand what freedom meant to them at the time. 

Essential Questions:

1. How was the Haitian Revolution a “global event”?

2. How did differing definitions of freedom influence the Haitian Revolution?

3. What were the most important causes of the Haitian Revolution?

Final Assessment: 

In this unit students will have an opportunity to develop their own research question or respond to a questions about the different definitions of freedom held by different groups during the revolution. You can differentiate based on student interest and level. 

Here is part of the assignment I offered students at the end of the unit: 

• How did differing views of Freedom influence the course of the Haitian Revolution? 

• Whose idea of freedom was most successful? 

Many of the causes of the Haitian Revolution are tied to the different understandings of freedom. The rebel leaders (divided within themselves), the masses, the French and the colonists all had varying ideas of how to exercise freedom through different economies, government systems, as well as different foreign relations. In order to get to the root of main causes of the revolution it is critical to analyze differing interpretations of freedom. For this paper students will explain what freedom meant for the different groups in Saint Dominigue and describe how these competing differences fueled the Haitian Revolution.