December 6, 1492
Columbus lands on Hispaniola, which the original Taino inhabitants call “Ayti,” meaning “mountainous land.” Columbus builds a small fort named La Navidad and leaves 39 of his men behind to search for gold. The men mistreat the indigenous population, pillaging their villages, seizing their women and committing acts of violence. The Tainos retaliate by killing the men and burning down the fort. When Columbus returns a year later with 17 ships and 1,200 men to enlarge the settlement, all he finds is the ruins of La Navidad.
1514
Fray Bartholomew de las Casas goes to the colony to “stop the suffering of the Indians under Spanish exploitation.” Bartholomew, shocked by the treatment of “this most lovable and tractable people,” begins importing African slaves as an alternate labor force.
1522
Slaves revolt against Spanish rule for the first time, 269 years before the Haitian Revolution. The rebellion is quickly and harshly suppressed. The revolt is the first of many as slaves fight colonial rule throughout Saint-Domingue’s history using various forms of resistance.
The first French settlers begin to occupy western Hispaniola. The first settlers are of a “dubious nature,” composed of former pirates and buccaneers
Early 1600s
first French settlers begin to occupy western Hispaniola. The first settlers are of a “dubious nature,” composed of former pirates and buccaneers
1620s
British and French settlers increasingly occupy the western third of Hispaniola, threatening Spain's claim on the island and its colonial empire. The three nations would battle each other up until the end of the Haitian Revolution for control of Saint-Domingue.
1640
France sends a representative to Hispaniola to establish its claim on the island.
1670s
French settlers begin tobacco production, thus initiating the transition to a plantation-oriented economy. The shift to plantations necessitates a much larger labor force, and the colonists begin importing more slaves from Africa.
1679
From 1679 to 1704 there are four armed conspiracies organized by slaves. All are “aimed at the massacre and annihilation of their white masters.” The rebellions, quickly suppressed, demonstrate the slaves’ continual unrest and resistance.
1685
plantations are introduced to Saint-Domingue. Colonists quickly find that indigo is extremely lucrative, and begin large-scale production. The need for plantation labor is once more accelerated and slaves are brought from Africa in increasing numbers
20 September 1697
The Treaty of Ryswick: Spain recognizes France’s presence on Hispaniola and cedes the western third of the island. The French call their new territory Saint-Domingue and the Spanish call their territory Santo Domingo. Saint-Domingue, known as the “Pearl of the Antilles,” becomes France’s most lucrative colony, holding world production records for sugar and coffee by the end of the 18th century.
1700s
-scale, labor-intensive sugar production begins, creating a pressing need for a larger labor force. Saint-Domingue begins importing 2,000 slaves a year to meet the colonists’ needs.
1750s
Free blacks and mulattoes begin to amass wealth and power. Many acquire plantations, especially coffee plantations in the West and the South.
“These men are beginning to fill the colony and it is of the greatest perversion to see them, their numbers continually increasing amongst the whites, with fortunes often greater than those of the whites . . . Their strict frugality prompting them to place their profits in the bank every year, they accumulate huge capital sums and become arrogant because they are rich, and their arrogance increases in proportion to their wealth. They bid on properties that are for sale in every district and cause their prices to reach such astronomical heights that the whites who have not so much wealth are unable to buy, or else ruin themselves if they do persist. In this manner, in many districts the best land is owned by the half-castes. . . These coloreds imitate the style of the whites and try to wipe out all memory of their original state”
— Colonial administrators writing to the Ministry of the Marine
1757
The Makandal Conspiracy. François Makandal (alternately spelled "Mackandal" or "Macandal"), a maroon leader, conspires to poison all the whites in the North in a plot intended to spread to “all corners of the colony.” Across the North, Makandal’s vast network of collaborators – mostly trusted domestics – begin poisoning their masters' households, including other slaves who can’t be trusted.The whites search frantically for the cause of the illnesses and deaths. After an interrogated female slave betrays the rebel leader, the planters launch a massive manhunt.
A Note on Maroons
Maroons were fugitive slaves who often fled into the mountains and lived in small bands while eluding capture. This phenomenon, called “marronage,” was crucial to the fight for Haiti’s independence. Maroons were some of the revolution’s most powerful figures, responsible for organizing attacks and uniting disparate groups even when their leaders deserted their cause and joined the colonists.
“Marronage, or the desertion of the black slaves in our colonies since they were founded, has always been regarded as one of the possible causes of [the colonies’] destruction . . . The minister should be informed that there are inaccessible or reputedly inaccessible areas in different sections of our colony which serve as retreat and shelter for maroons; it is in the mountains and in the forests that these tribes of slaves establish themselves and multiply, invading the plains from time to time, spreading alarm and always causing great damage to the inhabitants.”
— From a 1775 memoir, on the state of maroons in Saint Domingue
“The slave . . . inconstant by nature and capable of comparing his present state with that to which he aspires, is incessantly inclined toward marronage. It is his ability to think, and not the instinct of domestic animals who flee a cruel master in hope of bettering their condition, that compels him to flee. That which appears to offer him a happier state, that which facilitates his inconstance, is the path which he will embrace.”
— From the register of the Upper Council of Le cap, 1767
March 1758
Makandal is executed. Colonists burn Makandal at the stake in the middle of the square in Le Cap. Owners bring their slaves and force them to watch. Despite witnessing his death, many slaves insist in Makandal’s immortality and he becomes a major inspirational figure for the slaves during the revolution.
1763–1768
Whites seek to control the affranchis as their population grows along with their wealth and power. Affranchis, primarily composed of free mulattoes, threaten the colony's power structure as they become influential landowners in the colony.
Legislation designed to frustrate their ambitions and prevent assimilation with whites forbids the affranchis to hold public office, practice privileged trades (such as law or medicine), assemble in public after 9pm, sit with or dress like whites, gamble, travel, or enter France. These offenses are ruled punishable with fines, imprisonment, chain gang duty, loss of freedom, and amputation.
Despite these restrictions, affranchis are still obliged to compulsory military duty between the ages of 15 and 45. Furthermore, they are still allowed to lend money, a service which the colonists are becoming increasingly reliant on. During the 18th century the credit provided by the affranchis is critical to Saint Domingue’s growing size and wealth.
The Seven Year War in Europe ends, and the Treaty of Paris is signed by Britain, France, Spain and Native Americans in Europe and the North American colony.
1763
colonists increasingly resent France’s hold on their production, which prevents them from profitable trading with other countries. Colonists begin seeking greater administrative control of local affairs and the planters’ autonomy movement begin to gain momentum.
May 1771
Louis XV issues Instructions to Administrators, which outlines new restrictions against blacks and mulattoes. The Instructions elaborate on the Code Noir of 1685 and mulattoes find that they are stripped of many of their freedoms and privileges in the colony.
1773
Over 800,000 African slaves are brought to Saint-Domingue from 1680 to 1776. Over a third of them die within their first few years in the colony. Slaves imported during this time are primarily from the kingdoms of the Congo and Angola. However, by this point the scope of the Atlantic slave trade has expanded so considerably that some slaves are brought from as far away as Mozambique, on the southeastern coast of Africa.
1776
The United States declares its independence from England. Many of the values espoused in the new republic’s Declaration of Independence influence the thinking of slaves in Saint-Domingue, including the Declaration’s famous preamble,which reads:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That same year Adam Smith writes that Saint-Domingue is “the most important of the sugar colonies of the West Indies."
1777
and Spain sign the Treaty of Aranjuez which officially recognizes French Saint-Domingue on the western third of Hispaniola.
1784
France re-imposes the Code Noir from 1685 due to planter abuses, this time issuing reforms that address slaves’ work hours, food rations, and quality of life. The Code restricts punishments and establishes minimal controls over the whites. The Code also legally obliges owners to provide slaves with small plots of land to grow food exclusively for their personal use. This issue of land rights is to become a central focus of the slaves’ demands during the revolutions
From 1784 to 1785, new royal ordinances from France make it possible for slaves to legally denounce abuses of a master, overseer, or plantation manager. Few slaves take advantage of these new rules, however, and the ones who do find that in reality the same system is still in place.
1788
The Monsieur Le Jeune Case
The 1788 Le Jeune case clearly demonstrated that the colony’s legal system clearly still favored whites over blacks regardless of evidence. Le Jeune, a planter in the North, killed a number of his slaves after suspecting a poison conspiracy and tortured two other women with fire while interrogating them. Though Le Jeune threatened to kill his slaves if they tried to denounce him in court, fourteen of them registered an official complaint in Le Cap. Their allegations were confirmed by two magistrates of state, who went to the plantation to investigate. The two men found the interrogated women still in chains, their legs so badly burned they were already decomposing. One died soon after. Despite this, white planters lined up to support Le Jeune. The governor and intendent wrote at the time that “It seems, in a word, that the security of the colony depends on the acquittal of Le Jeune.” The court was clearly complicit when it subsequently delivered a negative verdict, rendering the case null and void.
June 1788
On the eve of the French Revolution, the Third Estate assembles in the tennis court at Versailles to write a new constitution and declares itself “the nation, the true representatives of the people,” swearing “as a body, never to disperse.” Nearly all colonial deputies participate, “and in the general euphoria and enthusiasm” the Third Estate recognizes the principle of colonial representation.
Mulattoes and free blacks pursue representation and equal rights as free persons and property owners, but are blocked by white colonists. In the National Assembly, absentee planters prevent the reemergence of the “mulatto question” to avoid a debate that could grant these rights. Meanwhile in the colony free blacks are now richer, more numerous and more militant than in any of France's other colonies. Planters, fearful of giving up any control and increasingly divided amongst themselves, become more abusive, executing mulattoes whenever possible.
Fall 1788
A petition is submitted to Saint-Domingue's Provincial Assembly requesting “political rights for free persons of color.” In November, another, similar petition is submitted by a white colonist, who is then “arrested at his residence, dragged through the streets, and brutally killed by a furious mob of petits blancs who cut off his head and paraded it through the town on a pike.” A respeted elderly mulatto suspected of having a copy of the petition is shot and dragged through the street
A white colonist later writes in 1789, “What preoccupies us the most at this time are the menaces of a revolt . . .Our slaves have already held assemblies in one part of the colony with threats of wanting to destroy all the whites and to become masters of the colony.”
1789
Slaves in Martinique revolt, partly due to the influence of the French Revolution. Saint-Domingue is increasingly unstable as well: at the end of the year the colony experiences a devastating drought and marronage increases as slaves abandon their plantations at higher rates. In reaction, whites become even more violent toward mulattoes, free blacks and white sympathizers.
17 June 1789
The Third Estate proclaims itself the National Assembly in France and votes to seat six delegates from Saint-Domingue.
14 July 1789
The French Revolution begins with the fall of the Bastille. France’s political and social structures descend into chaos as violence breaks out.
26 August 1789
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens is adopted by the National Assembly. The Declaration’s articles include:
October 1789
In Saint-Domingue the Colonial Assembly forms to combat actions the French National Assembly has taken on behalf of free blacks and mulattoes.
5 October 1789
Louis XVI assents to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens, saying that the rights are “granted to all men by natural justice.”
22 October 1789
French National Assembly accepts a petition of rights for “free citizens of color” from Saint-Domingue.
8 March 1790
A new decree in France grants full legislative powers to the Colonial Assembly, giving the colony almost complete autonomy. The decree sidesteps the mulatto issue, leaving it to the planters to interpret and declares that anyone attempting to undermine or to incite agitation against the interests of the colonists is guilty of crime against the nation.
May 1790
News of the March 8 decree reaches Saint-Domingue. The Colonial Assembly in Saint Marc begins issuing radical decrees and reforms, pushing the colony further toward autonomy from France and creating conflict between the colony’s royalists and patriots. Saint Marc planters also vow that they will never grant political rights to mulattoes, a “bastard and degenerate race,” and expressly exclude them from the primary assemblies. Mulattoes continue to be frustrated in their attempts to secure their rights and a new Colonial Assembly is elected without a single mulatto or free black vote.
28 May 1790
The Colonial Assembly at Saint Marc issues a new decree declaring that its laws, like those made by the National Assembly in France, are subject only to the sanction of the king; that any National Assembly law regarding colonial affairs are subject to colonial veto; that the colony is from now on to be a “federative ally” and not a subject; and that the functions of the National Assembly colonial deputies are suspended.
12 October 1790
The French National Assembly dissolves the Colonial Assembly at Saint Marc. The governor of Saint-Domingue amasses troops to dissolve it by force. The colony is now divided between royalists and patriots; both groups court mulattoes’ support.
The Colonial Assembly refuses to disband and issues a call to arms of all citizens. At last, outnumbered by the governor’s forces, the 85 assembly members realize they’re trapped. They manage to board a ship, the Léopard, and sail to France to plead their case to the National Assembly. There they attempt to reaffirm their right to legislate free persons of color.
Resource: abc News
Life in Haiti
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21-28 Oct 1790
The Ogé Rebellion: Jacques Vincent Ogé, an affranchis representing the colony in France, leads a revolt against the white colonial authorities in Saint-Domingue. Despite colonists’ attempts to prevent him from leaving France, Ogé manages to escape to England, where he is secretly helped by abolitionists. From there he sails to the United States, where he buys weaponry before arriving in Saint-Domingue on October 21. Eluding police, Ogé manages to unite with friends and family and organize a “common front of gens de couleur against the forces of white supremacy.” He amasses 300 men, consisting primarily of mulattoes and some free blacks. The group, fully armed, marches to Grande-Rivière, just south of Le Cap, and joins with others with the intention of taking the city and disarming the white population. The colonists manage to disband Ogé’s army by outnumbering the rebels. Ogé escapes and goes into hiding in the eastern part of the island in Spanish Santo Domingo.
9 March 1791
Ogé is extradited from Spanish territory and executed at Le Cap. He is forced, cords hanging from his necks, to repent for his crimes on bended knee before being tied to a wheel and killed on a scaffold. His head is cut off and displayed on a stake. Two days later 21 of his supporters and troops are sentenced to death. The next month 13 more are sentenced to the galleys for life.
“Such were the consequences of the ambiguous March decrees [which were] designed to leave to the colonists ‘the merit and option of exercising an act of generosity toward mulattoes and free blacks, an act which would inspire in them sentiments of affection and gratitude and establish the most perfect harmony among the different classes composing the population.'"
April
General insurrection breaks out amongst the 10,000 to 15,000 slaves in the Cul-de-Sac plain. Slaves mobilize around Mirebalais, Arcahaye, Petite-Rivière, Verettes, and Saint Marc until nearly half the province is in armed rebellion. Blacks throughout the colony become increasingly restless.
15 May 1791
The debate on mulatto and free black rights resumes in heated discussions in France. One proponent writes that “We will sacrifice to the colonial deputies neither the nation nor the colonies nor the whole of humanity . . . I ask the Assembly to declare that the free persons of color be allowed to enjoy the rights of voting citizens.”
The National Assembly responds by declaring a limited number of free-born persons of color eligible to be seated in future assemblies, with the rights of voting citizens. Though the action is conservative – only applicable to persons born of free parents and “possessing the requisite qualifications” – colonists are furious.
Slaves in the Cul-de-Sac plain are disarmed and returned to their plantations. In the West, rebels surrender in exchange for their leaders’ freedom. In the South, slaves refuse to back down and continue to agitate for the freedom, due to the fact that by now they “had fought as equals and considered themselves free.”
It is important to note that at this point the slaves are not fighting for general emancipation. Instead, they are demanding freedom for their leaders, additional free days during the week, and abolition of the whip as punishment. However, colonists refuse to negotiate at all. Meanwhile the slave forces continue to grow, reaching nearly 4,000 by the end of July.
Summer 1791
Black and mulatto leaders increase their organization efforts. Mulattoes agitate in the South for their rights separate from the efforts of the slaves. At the same time the slaves, emboldened by their participation as armed equals in the insurrection movements, begin to form their independent movement for emancipation.
July 1791
Colonists revolt against the May 15 decree issued by France. Different factions from the white community all unite to subvert the decree and reestablish the legislative powers of the colony. Nearly all 85 members of the disbanded Colonial Assembly are pardoned in France and return to Saint-Domingue where they are re-elected. The elections exclude free blacks and mulattoes from voting.
By this point “it was not the few hundred mulattoes and free blacks included in the law that the planters feared. The entire social and economic structure of the colony, slavery itself, and the precious fortunes tied to it were at stake.”
June 1791
Slaves in the Cul-de-Sac plain begin abandoning their plantations including: those from the Fortin-Bellantien plantation near Croix-des-Bouquets, who assassinate their commandeu; groups from five nearby plantations, roughly 50 in number; and the entire ateliers of two other plantations. The slaves begin holding frequent gatherings in the woods to plot their revolution.
When the planters attempt to break up the meetings, the slaves resist with “unrestrained courage and determination.” Of the group, 13 slaves are mortally wounded and captured, 60 retreat with arms, 2 are killed and 8 of their leaders are executed.
July 1791
The entire structure of Saint-Domingue is changing rapidly. In addition to internal divisions between royalists and reformists, the planters’ strained relations with colony officials erupt into open fighting. Saint-Domingue is in social and administrative chaos and France dismantles the colony’s power structure.
Amidst the upheaval, nearly every planter is too preoccupied with the colony’s power struggles to pay attention to the slaves’ growing unrest. Few of the colonists understand how the changes taking place affect their slaves.
The planters’ lack of understanding was due primarily to hubris: “Although a few might have foreseen the dangers ahead, most generally assumed that slavery was as inviolable as it was enduring. It had lasted over two hundred years. Slave rebellions had occurred in the past, and marronage had been a constant plague. But the revolts were always isolated affairs, and maroon bands were invariably defeated along with their leaders. For the planters, there was no reason to believe that slave activity was any different from what it had been in the past. They would soon learn, but only by the raging flames that within hours reduced their magnificent plantations to ashes, how wrong they were.”
The above quote is by Carolyn E. Fick from The Making of Haiti, pp.87-88
29 July 1791
Violence breaks out in Les Cayes after failed negotiations between colonists and rebel slaves. 2,000 slaves attack a plantation being used as a military camp by the planters. The slaves then divide themselves up into smaller groups to simultaneously attack plantations throughout the Torbeck region. During their attacks, the rebels kill any slave who refuses to join their forces. Their army, growing with each new attack, torches 14 of the colony’s finest plantations.
In response, the colonists charge Governor Blanchelande with disarming the slaves and suppressing the insurrection. Blanchelande amasses hundreds of troops and plans his attack. However, he is overly naïve and plans his offensive publicly, ensuring that the slaves receive detailed information on his planned attacks, allowing them to prepare and strategize against him.
4 August 1791
Blanchelande’s troops are attacked by slaves. The rebels descend on Port-Saltu from all four sides in a coordinated offensive. By the time they are through, not a single plantation is left in the area. The slaves then set successive ambushes, pushing back each column of the colonist army and advancing along the mountainous cliffs. The slaves succeed in destroying the coordination of the whites’ attack and causing confusion and disorder. More than 200 of Blanchelande’s troops are killed.
8 August 1791
Blanchelande returns to Les Cayes with his dilapidated army. In his retreat, he leaves behind 2 cannons and large supplies of munitions and arms. The white residents in Les Cayes are furious and accuse him of aiding the slave insurrection. Blanchelande replies that the planters would have been better off negotiating with the slaves and granting their initial demands.
10 August 1791
Blanchelande goes to Le Cap, fleeing angry colonists in Les Cayes. He is later deported to France. Despite their defeat, Les Cayes planters still refuse to negotiate with slave leaders.
21-28 Oct 1790
The Ogé Rebellion: Jacques Vincent Ogé, an affranchis representing the colony in France, leads a revolt against the white colonial authorities in Saint-Domingue. Despite colonists’ attempts to prevent him from leaving France, Ogé manages to escape to England, where he is secretly helped by abolitionists. From there he sails to the United States, where he buys weaponry before arriving in Saint-Domingue on October 21. Eluding police, Ogé manages to unite with friends and family and organize a “common front of gens de couleur against the forces of white supremacy.” He amasses 300 men, consisting primarily of mulattoes and some free blacks. The group, fully armed, marches to Grande-Rivière, just south of Le Cap, and joins with others with the intention of taking the city and disarming the white population. The colonists manage to disband Ogé’s army by outnumbering the rebels. Ogé escapes and goes into hiding in the eastern part of the island in Spanish Santo Domingo.
14 August 1791
The Haitian Revolution begins with the Bois Caïman ceremony. Ready to carry out their plans, the slaves meet in Morne-Rouge to make final preparations and to give instructions. The slaves decide that “Upon a given signal, the plantations would be systematically set aflame, and a generalized slave insurrection set afoot.” Rumors circulate that white masters and colonial authorities are on their way to France to fight the Crown’s recent decrees granting mulattoes and free blacks rights. Though false, these rumors “served as a rallying point around which to galvanize the aspirations of the slaves, to solidify and channel these into open rebellion.”
The Bois Caïman ceremony and subsequent insurrections are the result of months of planning and strategizing. There are two hundred slave leaders involved from around the North. All hold privileged positions on their plantations, most of them commandeurs with influence and authority over other slaves.Through strategic maneuvering these leaders successfully unite a vast network of Africans, mulattoes, maroons, commandeurs, house slaves, field slaves, and free blacks.
The Bois Caïman ceremony takes place in a thickly wooded area where the slaves solemnize their pact in a voodoo ritual. The ceremony is officiated by Boukman, a maroon leader and voodoo priest from Jamaica, and a voodoo high priestess. Various accounts from that night describe a tempestuous storm, animal sacrifices, and voodoo deities. However, over the centuries the ceremony has become legendary, and it is important to note it can be difficult to distill fact from myth. Some historians, for example, believe the ceremony took place on the 22nd of August, not the 14th.
A Note on Voodoo
“Voodoo, both a sacred dance and a religion, was expressly forbidden in the French colonies, and from the very beginning, the colonists tried in vain to crush it.” Voodoo prevailed despite the whites’ efforts, nurtured in secret by the colony’s first slaves. During European colonialism and the Haitian revolution Voodoo played a singular role for slaves:
“Despite rigid prohibitions, voodoo was indeed one of the few areas of totally autonomous activity for the African slaves. As a religion and a vital spiritual force, it was a source of psychological liberation in that it enabled them to express and reaffirm that self-existence they objectively recognized through their own labor . . . Voodoo further enabled the slaves to break away psychologically form the very real and concrete chains of slavery and to see themselves as independent beings; in short it gave them a sense of human dignity and enabled them to survive.”
During the revolution Voodoo brought together disparate forces in the colony, uniting various rebel factions to fight side by side. In the 19th and 20th centuries, Voodoo was widely misunderstood in the rest of the world. Hollywood portrayed the religion as primitive and savage, ignoring its rich history and complexity. Many researchers have misunderstood its relationship with Catholicism, which has masked and at times fused with Voodoo as it has developed over the centuries.
Voodoo today is still a significant part of most Haitians’ daily lives. A Haitian woman in the 20th century said that “The loa love us, protect us and watch over us. They show us what is happening to our relatives living far away, and they tell us what medicines will do us good when we are sick.”
16 August 1791
Slaves in the Limbé district stray from the leaders’ plan, apparently due to a misunderstanding, and are caught setting fire to an estate. During their interrogation they reveal the conspiracy and the names of the leaders.
Interestingly, though, many of the planters who are warned of the rebellion stand by their slaves and refuse to believe the rumors. One plantation manager, for example, “offered his own head in exchange if the denunciations….proved true.” Other planters, warned of the coming violence, escaped with their lives but still couldn’t protect their property, often losing everything.
The other slaves involved in the conspiracy prepare to move ahead with the rebellion as planned, vowing to “to burn le Cap, the plantations, and to massacre the whites all at the same time.”
22 August 1791
The slaves launch their insurrection in the North. That night Boukman and his forces march throughout the region, taking prisoners and killing whites. By midnight, plantations are in flames and the revolt has begun. Armed with torches, guns, sabers, and makeshift weapons the rebels continue their devastation as they go from plantation to plantation. By six the next morning, only a few slaves in the area have yet to join Boukman, and scores of plantations and their owners are destroyed.
The group, numbering 1,000 to 2,000, next splits into smaller bands to attack designated plantations, demonstrating their highly organized strategy. As the revolt in the North grows “awesome in dimensions,” whites become anxious about defending Le Cap, where the colonial government is centralized. It is to Le Cap – the social and cultural hub of the colony – that whites flee their burning plantations and rebelling slaves. Later an interrogated slave would declare that “in every workshop in the city there were negroes concerned in the plot.” The whites and slaves both realize that controlling the city would be critical in determining the revolution’s outcome.
Blanchelande writes that “Fears of a conspiracy [in Le Cap] were confirmed as we had successfully discovered and continue daily to discover plots that prove that the revolt is combined between the slaves of the city and those of the plains; we have therefore established permanent surveillance to prevent the first sign of fire here in the city which would soon develop into a general conflagration.”
23 August 1791
The slaves march to the Limbé district, adding to their forces. The group moves from plantation to plantation, seizing control and establishing military camps. Along the way more slaves join the rebellion, and those who don’t are cut down mercilessly.
By the end of the day, “the finest sugar plantations of Saint Domingue were literally devoured by flames.” A horrified colonist wrote that “one can count as many rebel camps as there were plantations.”
24 August 1791
The slaves continue west to Port-Margot in the early evening, hitting at least four plantations.
25 August 1791
The rebels march to Le Cap, after burning down the region’s largest plantations and killing scores of whites. Every entrance to the city is guarded, and the slaves march against the whites’ cannons and guns, meeting armed resistance for the first time. Though the whites manage to drive the slaves back, the rebels divide up and regroup, returning by two different routes to successfully seize the city.
The slaves hold out for three weeks against the planters, who are badly armed, disorganized, injured, and desperately in need of help. The slaves’ strategy is clear: every time the planters circle or overcome them, the slaves retreat to the mountains to reorganize and prepare a new attack.
At the same time, slaves in the northeast rise up, “torch in hand, with equal coordination and purpose,” and advanced “like wildfire.” The slaves burn down the plantations methodically until all the major parishes in the upper North Plain region are hit and communication between them is severed.
30-31 Aug 1791
The slave forces reach nearly 15,000. Slaves join because they “had deserted their plantations, by will or by force, or by the sheer thrust and compulsion of events purposefully set in motion by the activities of a revolutionary core.” They are transformed from fugitive slaves into “hardened, armed rebel, fighting for freedom, ”a mental and physical process “accelerated by collective rebellion in a context of revolutionary social and political upheaval.”
A colonist writes that “We had learned . . . that a large attack was afoot, but how could we ever have known that there reigned among these men, so numerous and formerly so passive, such a concerted accord that everything was carried out exactly as was declared? . . . The revolt had been too sudden, too vast and too well-planned for it to seem possible to stop it or even to moderate its ravages.”
The planters are able to protect Le Cap but cannot save their plantations. They send frantic requests for military aid to Santo Domingo, Cuba, Jamaica, and the United States to no avail. Within 8 days the rebels devastate 184 sugar plantations in the north, losing planters millions of French livres. By September all the plantations within fifty miles of Le Cap are destroyed.
8 September 1791
The revolution spreads, becoming more militant and organized. On the plantations it takes less incite riots. Plantation crops are ruined as entire fields of slaves desert or simply stop working. In the “magnificent” Plaine-des-Cayes, comprising of almost 100 sugar plantations, every single plantation is destroyed. Many of the planters, “financially and morally ruined,” are desperate to save their fortunes while others consider themselves fortunate “just to get out of this wretched colony with their lives and a shirt on their backs.”
The white troops are completely unprepared for the rebel’s guerrilla tactics, which include surprise attacks, thefts of supplies and livestock, ambushes, and poisoned arrows. The slaves, more resilient than the whites, are merciless, taking no prisoners of war. Over half of the 6,000 troops from France have at this point already “perished from the ravages of a tropical climate and endemic sicknesses reaching epidemic proportions.”
An army volunteer writes: “This is the graveyard of the French; here one dies off like flies.”
Mid-Sept 1791
Slaves continue to make demands, but with the entire colonial system at stake, the planters can’t concede.
One colonist writes presciently of the colonists’ dilemma in negotiating with the slaves: “For, if we reward with freedom those who have burned our plantations and massacred our people, the slaves who have hitherto remained loyal will do likewise in order to receive the same benefit. Then nothing more can be said: the whites must perish.”
Another states “There can be no agriculture in Saint Domingue without slavery; we did not go to fetch half a million savage slaves off the coast of Africa to bring them to the colony as French citizens.”
21 Sept 1791
The Colonial Assembly at Saint Marc recognizes the May 15 decree and grants citizenship to mulattoes and free blacks. White planters object violently and tensions in the colony rise.
24 September 1791
The National Assembly in France revokes the May 15 decree, which had granted limited rights to free blacks and mulattoes, and names three commissioners to restore order in Saint-Domingue. In response, mulatto agitation in the South becomes open, armed rebellion in collaboration with the black slaves. Rebels in the west seize Port-au-Prince capital, cut its water supply and block all access to incoming food supplies before they are overcome by the French troops.
26 September 1791
Le Cap is burned to the ground by rebelling slaves.
“During those first weeks of revolution, the slaves destroyed the whites and their property with much the same ruthlessness and cruelty that they had suffered for so many years at the hands of their masters. The scenes of horror and bloodshed on the plantations, as whites hopelessly tried to defend themselves or, at best, to flee from the unleashed terror and rage of their former slaves, were only too reminiscent of the brutality that the slaves themselves had endured under the plantations regime. Yet as atrocious as they were, these acts of vengeance were surprisingly moderate, in the opinion of one of the best-known historians of that revolution, compared with the cold-blooded, grotesque savagery and sadistically calculated torture committed by their oppressors throughout the past. These were impassioned acts of revenge, of retribution, and were relatively short-lived.”
(Carolyn E. Fick, The Making of Haiti, p. 10The "horrible carnage" gives way to strategic military operations, tactical maneuvers and new political alliances as the slaves gain territory and stabilize their positions.They raid plantations for military equipment, loot the whites' forces after they are repelled, and trade with the Spanish for weaponry.
28 September 1791
The National Assembly in France issues a decree granting amnesty to all free persons in Saint Domingue charged with “acts of revolution.” The slaves however are still intent on warfare and pursuing “an end to the whites.”
October 1791
Port-au-Prince is burned to the ground during fighting between whites and mulattoes. Toussaint Louverture, a young former slave, begins to gain recognition as a promising leader in the rebel army.
November 1791
Of 170,000 slaves in the North Province, 80,000 have by now joined the rebel forces. The slaves set up camps in Platons with thousands of dwellings, two infirmaries, a civil government, crops and food supplies.
The three new civil commissioners named in September arrive in the colony from France.
November 1791
Boukman is killed in battle, becoming the first of the original leaders to die. His head is cut off by colonists and exposed on a stake in Le Cap with the inscription “The head of Boukman, leader of the rebels.” In response, the slaves mourn intensely, retreating into the mountains to hold services. Fervor builds amongst the rank-and-file soldiers to kill every white they see, including all their prisoners. The grief and rage is finally channeled into a three day calenda ceremony.
Without Boukman, the rebel leaders falter, unsure of how to proceed. Against the wishes of their troops, they choose to negotiate with the colonists, asking for improved quality of life on plantations in exchange for the release of prisoners, namely the leaders’ wives. The slave troops, on the other hand, vow that they will continue fighting for freedom, even if it means killing their own leaders. They, more than their commanders, are violently opposed to compromising or returning to the plantations and realize that the negotiations are doomed.
At the end of the month, the Colonial Assembly refuses all the slaves’ demands. The rebel leaders agree to return to war.
9 January 1792
Governor Blanchelande marches against the slaves encamped at Platons. The rebel army, out of supplies and outnumbered, abandons camp and retreats to the mountains. They leave behind noncombatants, consisting of a few hundred women, children, elderly and infirm, whom they expect will be treated leniently by the French. Instead the troops massacre them, “their heads cut off and their bodies slashed to pieces as the women fought ferociously to protect their children.” About 3,000 other captured slaves are returned to masters, and many are killed to set an example. The colonists celebrate their victory, but in reality the core of the insurgent movement – including its strongest, most determined, leaders – is still in hiding.
22–23 January 1792
Slaves begin their attack to recapture the Ouinaminthe district in the northeast of Saint-Domingue, attacking Le Cap to secure ammunition and replenish their supplies.
4 April 1792
Louis XVI affirms the Jacobin decree, granting equal political rights to free blacks and mulattoes in Saint-Domingue. A second commission is assembled, led by Léger Félicité Sonthonax, to enforce the ruling.
*The year marks the three hundred year anniversary of Columbus’ landing on Hispaniola.
May 1792
Spain declares war against England, then France. In Saint-Domingue, the European powers battle for control of the lucrative colony.
20 June 1792
Blacks and mulattoes in the South ally with the British and begin an open rebellion.
In Le Cap, civil commissioners Blanchelande and Sonthonax flee for protection as rebels attack the city. Every street becomes a battlefield: “Terror and panic spread like wildfire as the women and children desperately tried to escape; atrocities and pillaging were committed on both sides."
21 June 1792
Over 10,000 slaves in Le Cap are now in open revolt. Threatened on all sides, French colonists realize that they need the slaves’ support to keep control of Saint-Domingue. Civil commissioners issue a proclamation guaranteeing freedom and the full rights of French citizenship to all slaves who join them to defend France from foreign and domestic enemies. Though some leaders refuse, allying instead with the Spanish, a group of marooned slaves answers the call, descending upon the capital “like an avalanche,” and forces the invaders to retreat. Chaos reigns, as nearly the entire city burns down and white colonists fight each other. In the coming months Spain, England and France are to battle constantly for Saint-Domingue.
17 September 1792
Civil commissioner Étienne Polverel arrives from France and the slaves offer to negotiate with the colonists once more. Polverel refuses to meet their demands but does agree to grant an unconditional pardon if the slaves surrender. The colonists protest angrily to this concession, and Polverel, like Blanchelande before him, is forced to attack the slaves in response to the pressure.
21 Sept 1792
France, The Republic is declared, abolishing the monarchy. In January of the following year Louis XVI is beheaded.
21 October 1792
Vicomte de Rochambeau is appointed Governor General of Saint-Domingue.
February 1793
Rebel leaders, including Toussaint Louverture, join Spanish forces to fight against the French.
France declares war on England and Holland.
10–13 March 1793
The Reign of Terror sweeps through France after royalist uprisings and military reverses. Tens of thousands of opponents of the Revolution are executed along with common criminals.
Early June 1793
Louverture offers to aid General Laveaux, Chief Commander of the republican forces in the North. Louverture offers his support and 5,000-6,000 troops in exchange for full amnesty and general emancipation. Laveaux refuses and Louverture continues to aid the Spanish for another full year.
20 June 1793
Le Cap is again consumed by flames and deserted by white residents. 10,000 white refugees fleeing the destruction arrive in the United States fleeing the destruction.
The French continue to court the support of the rebel troops. A new decree is issued proclaiming that any slave wishing to join republican army will be granted his freedom. Soon after the offer is extended to troops’ wives and children.
27 August 1793
Polverel declares that the certain slaves are now free, specifically those on sequestered plantations in the West, those belonging to émigré planters and deportees, all remaining insurgent maroons, and all those who are fighting for France. Though Polverel believes in gradually granting slaves their rights, Sonthonax is simultaneously planning far more radical action in the North.
29 August 1793
Sonthonax issues a General Emancipation decree abolishing slavery in the North. More slaves in the colony have their freedom than ever before. Monsieur Artaud, one of the colony’s wealthiest planters with more than 1,000 slaves, tells Sonthonax that “only universal freedom could spare the whites from being totally annihilated.”
Following decrees further restrict punishments and grant minimal pay to slaves – now called “laborers” – in the colony. Skilled laborers are legally allowed on administrative councils. However, the declarations of freedom are bound solely to theoretical property rights. Slaves are still regulated by the government, legally bound to the same plantations and masters. Their daily lives change little. In protest, many slaves go on strike, arriving to the fields late, leaving early, and doing little work. Disarmed, many former rebels turn to vagrancy as their main form of resistance.Notably, women demand that they are granted equal pay and rights as men. Under the current system women are held to the same rules and punishments but paid only two thirds of men's wages.
August 1973
Toussaint Louverture makes his historic speech to rally the blacks, signifying that the revolution lives on.
20 September 1793
British troops sever ties between the North and South, isolating the provinces from each other as the Europeans, planters and rebels all fight for control. The British intend to restore order, make Saint-Domingue a British colony, and reinstate slavery.
21 August 1793
The first anniversary of the French Republic. Civil commissioner Polverel, combining the principles of the French Revolution with those of general emancipation, gives the slaves on his plantation their freedom. He then invites planters in the West to follow his example. The planters, pressured by Polverel and their slaves, back down and emancipate many of their slaves.
September 1793
A series of national reforms sweep through France from September 1793 through October 1795. The measures include the abolition of colonial slavery, economic measures to aid the poor, and support for public education.
4 February 1794
The Convention officially abolishes in France and French territories, including Saint-Domingue.
7 February 1794
A new work code is promulgated. Among other things, it requires owners to give slaves a third of plantation revenue and an additional free day. Slaves’ daily lives are still largely unaffected, however, and the new code fails to ease their discontent. Widespread resistance continues, with many slaves appropriating abandoned land for themselves.
Despite the force of the slave revolution, most colonists are still unaware that the system in Saint-Domingue is slowly breaking down. They do note however that “Unanimous and uncompetitive, the black values his liberty only to the extent that it affords him the possibility of living according to his own philosophy.” They also realize that Polverel’s version of emancipation, in which little actually changes on the plantations, is unacceptable to the laborers and incompatible with their values
Land Ownership
Land ownership in Saint-Domingue was a critical issue before, during, and after the Haitian Revolution. Land ownership granted access to power and prosperity and was sought after by all of the colony’s social classes.
During the build up to the revolution whites were increasingly threatened by the mulattoes and free blacks who were becoming powerful landowners. At the beginning of the revolution, one of the slaves’ central demands was to have small plots of land and an additional free day during the week to cultivate them. Later on, during Louverture’s reign, laborers objected to his adherence to a plantation-based economy which required blacks to work land that was not theirs.
Through the course of the revolution, and in the years following, former slaves felt owning land was critical in order to truly claim their freedom. To that end they fought for the colonists – and even their own leaders – for land rights, never giving up their goal to own the fields they worked in.
Spring 1794
France has lost control of nearly the entire colony, aside from Le Cap and Port-de-Paix. The British and Spanish control most of the North, Môle St. Nicolas in the West, and Jérémie and Grand-Anse in the South. Many mulattoes and blacks are aiding the foreign forces with the goal of expelling the French.
April-May 1974
The civil commissioners from France are forced to depart. André Rigaud, a mulatto military leader, consolidates the colony’s authority in the South. After these changes, there is a period of relative peace, with markedly fewer protest movements from black laborers.
6 May 1974
Louverture abandons the Spanish army in the east and joins with the French forces after the Spanish refuse to take steps to end slavery. His chief officers would eventually become some of the best-known leaders of the revolution, including Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Henri Christophe, and his nephew Moïse.
4 June 1794
The British capture Port-au-Prince led by General Thomas Maitland. British troops occupy most major seaports in the west and south. Spanish troops, along with a number of former slaves, occupy much of the western provinces.
25 June 1794
The French legislature recalls commissioners Polverel and Sonthonax. Sonthonax later is tried and triumphantly acquitted of the charges of treason brought against him by colonists.
Nearly 4 months after Polverel’s departure, Rigaud writes to him:“The [South] province . . . is tranquil and in a reasonably good state of defense . . . Work is going well; your proclamations on agricultural production are having the full effect that you anticipated.”
Late 1794
Various maroon bands disband and join with Louverture's forces. A few months later, Louverture and Rigaud along with other military leaders begin launching simultaneous attacks against the British. In June of 1795, after five months of fighting, Louverture takes control of Mirebelais, northeast of Port-au-Prince in the center of the colony.
22 July 1795
France and Spain sign a peace treaty ceding Saint Domingue to France after months of battle. The agreement is ratified the following year in the Treaty of Basel.
26 October 1795
The National Convention in France dissolves and the Directory is established. The Directory sends five new civil commissioners to Saint-Domingue “to survey the administration and application of French law in the colony, to keep Saint Domingue ‘both French and free,’ and to restore its economic prosperity based on a system of general emancipation in what had by now become, at least nominally, a multiracial, egalitarian society.” Mulatto rights and the abolition of slavery are now considered “accomplished facts.”
20 March 1796
Louverture establishes that he is the strongest leader in the colony when Governor General Laveaux returns to Le Cap from Port-de-Paix. Laveaux attempts to reins in the mulattoes, who he believes have been abusing their new rights, and frees blacks from the prisons. Mulattoes, threatened by his new policies and association with Louverture, charge Laveaux with tyranny and begin mobilizing forces against him. The situation climaxes when a group of mulattoes arrest Laveaux and throw him in prison, where he is kept until Louverture orders his release.
The incident demonstrates a shift in power and solidifies Louverture’s position. Not only powerful, “Toussaint appeared to hold the undivided confidence of the black masses.” Laveaux is forced to proclaim Louverture Lieutenant Governor of the colony. Meanwhile, class and race-based power struggles continue to simmer throughout Saint-Domingue.
11 May
hree new civil commissioners from France, including Sonthonax, arrive in Saint-Domingue.
June 1796
Final withdrawal of Spanish forces from Hispaniola per the peace treaty signed by France and Spain in July 1795.
18 July 1796
Rochambeau is dismissed as Governor General after clashing with Sonthonax and returns to France. Rigaud replaces him.
August 1796
Primary electoral assemblies in Saint-Domingue are formed to elect colonial representatives to the legislative body in France. The outcome, facilitated by Louverture, results in positions for Laveaux and Sonthonax as deputies to the French legislature.
October 1796
Power struggles develop in the face of Louverture’s growing power. To solidify his position and strengthen his ties, Sonthonax appoints Louverture Commander-in-Chief of the army. Laveaux sails to France as deputy while Sonthonax reluctantly stays in Saint-Domingue to perform his duties as civil commissioner. He plans to depart the colony in eighteen months when his assignment ends.
25 August 1797
Louverture forces Sonthonax to return to France prematurely in a political move calculated to strengthen his position and gain favor in France. Sonthonax, despite wanting to leave the colony in the first place, finds himself forced out. As a result, instead of a normal and peaceful departure, the event becomes a humiliating and “forcible expulsion.” The remaining civil commissioners in the colony defer to Louverture, reaffirming that he is the most powerful figure in Saint-Domingue. Louverture misjudges, however, and instead of gaining favor abroad his audacity threatens the French and he is quickly seen as a major threat.
Fall 1797-
Winter 1798
Louverture’s army conquers most of British-occupied Saint-Domingue in the West. In the South, Rigaud’s army conquers the British at Jérémie.
March 1798
The British surrender their fight for Saint-Domingue and negotiate peace with Louverture. Louverture agrees to grant full amnesty to French citizens who didn’t fight with the British, all black troops enrolled in the British army, and to the émigrés who had abandoned the British prior to the opening of negotiations.
April 1798
France sends another official agent to Saint-Domingue upon the return of Sonthonax. Commissioner Hédouville arrives in Le Cap. His mission is to promulgate laws of the French legislative body, to “entrench respect for French national authority,” to prevent blacks from abusing their freedom, and to strictly enforce French law against the immigrants who first came to the colony in 1771.
In reaction to France’s mounting fear of Louverture and his black army, Hédouville tries to disempower Louverture by dividing him and Rigaud. Though he is unsuccessful, Hédouville manages to force Louverture’s resignation from the Directory, insulting him in France and arranging to replace him with three European generals. In addition, he fills the Saint-Domingue army with white soldiers, sending the black troops back to plantations. Slaves view Hédouville’s actions as an attempt to reinstate slavery and a new wave of insurrection breaks out.
13 June 1798
Louverture signs a secret alliance treaty with England and the United States.
October 1798
British forces evacuate Saint-Domingue as part of an agreement not to interfere with trade with France’s colonies. The French economy, depressed during its wars against Spain and England, reopens to colonial imports. At the same time merchant bourgeoisie lobby to reinstate the slave trade. Napoleon Bonaparte faces increasing pressure in France to bring down Louverture and take back Saint-Domingue.
23 October 1798
Hédouville missteps and tries to have Moïse arrested. Moïse, “the idol of the black workers” and Louverture’s nephew, manages to escape, issuing a call to arms to black workers throughout the plain. Louverture orders Dessalines and his troops to march on Le Cap to arrest Hédouville. Meanwhile mulattoes from around the colony join Rigaud in the South. Louverture concurrently strengthens and reorganizes his army in the North.
1799
Bonaparte’s overthrows the Directory in France, destroying the democratic republic and its anti-slavery principles. He declares himself Consul-for-Life, restores the pre-Revolution status quo of white rule, and turns his attention to France’s colonies.
July 1799
Civil war between Louverture and Rigaud breaks out: Rigaud takes over command of Léogâne and Jacmel while Louverture take over Petit-Goâve. This power struggle, fraught with issues of race and class, ultimately benefits the economic interests of the Americans and British, who seek to maximize their trade to the detriment of the French.
“From the vantage point of international politics, Saint Domingue was being manipulated as a piece on a chessboard, and the outcome of its internal struggles would be a key to the particular political and economic advantages that each of the three contending foreign powers intended to reap.”
April 1800
Louverture sends a military expedition into Spanish Santo Domingo to bring the territory under his rule. At the same time a mass uprising of armed black workers breaks out in the North in support of Louverture. Louverture’s negotiations with the Spanish ultimately fail but he successfully gains the masses’ popular support. Moïse marches in the South with 10,000 troops.
May 1800
Bonaparte sends a new commission to Saint-Domingue to confirm Louverture’s power in the colony and instate France’s most recent constitution. The new constitution proclaims that French colonies are to be governed by a set of “special laws” that take into the account the particularities of each territory. It states that Saint-Domingue is not to be represented in the French legislative body and will not be governed by laws for French citizens. The constitution does not address the colony’s general emancipation, but it is carefully worded to assure blacks of its inviolability.
Louverture, meanwhile, is focused on ending civil war in the South and disarming Rigaud and his army.
25 July 1800
Dessalines defeats Rigaud with the help of American vessels at the Jacmel port. Louverture exiles Rigaud to France and re-divides the areas of conflict. He grants general amnesty to every person who helped him fight Rigaud.
30 August 1800
Louverture is proclaimed the colony’s Supreme Commander-in-Chief. He and his revolutionary army of ex-slaves are “the uncontested dominant forces in Saint-Domingue” and he begins to impose what is essentially a military dictatorship. He has an army of 20,000 men to enforce his position as “absolute master of the island-colony."
Louverture institutes a new set of policies enforcing the traditional plantation system so that the colony’s shaken economy can produce exports for France. This is an extension and reinforcement of earlier work codes imposed by French civil commissioners such as Sonthonax, Polverel and Hédouville. The laborers see the policies as an effort to re-impose slavery. They further object to Louverture’s plan to import Africans to increase the Saint-Domingue’s labor force and buoy its economy.
28 January 1801
The governor of Spanish Santo Domingo cedes control of his territory to Louverture. To make his achievements permanent, Louverture forms a central assembly to write a new constitution for all of Hispaniola that abolishes slavery on the entire island. Louverture's achievements during his years in power include social reforms, structuring and organizing a new government, establishing courts of justice and building public schools.
8 July 1801
Louverture proclaims the new constitution in Saint-Domingue and is declared Governor General for life. The constitution, which is sent to France, sanctions the structures Louverture has already set in place, and emphasizes the bourgeois principles of the French Revolution.
Slavery is abolished forever and the constitution eliminates social distinctions of race and color, stating “all individuals be admitted to all public functions depending on their merit and without regard to race or color.” All individuals born in the colony were to be “equal, free, and citizens of France.” Voodoo is outlawed, mandatory labor is codified and Catholicism is established as the colony’s official religion. Black slaves, chafing against Louverture’s mandatory labor requirements, reject the measures through various forms of resistance.
Though the constitution essentially usurps the power of the French, Saint-Domingue still identifies as a French colony. The constitution attempts to establish Saint-Domingue as equal to France, asserting the colony’s autonomy while still trying to receive benefits from France. Though the constitution is not a formal declaration of independence, Bonaparte immediately recognizes it as a threat and rejects it. General Victor-Emmanuel Leclerc, Bonaparte’s brother-in-law, is sent to Saint-Domingue to re-impose slavery and the Code Noir.
By now planters are increasingly unhappy with the state of affairs in Saint-Domingue and are relying on Bonaparte to unseat Louverture, restore slavery, and facilitate the rise of the colony once more. Bonaparte is sympathetic, declaring that “Toussaint was no more than a rebel slave who needed to be removed, whatever the cost.”
19 July 1801
In the United States, President Thomas Jefferson reassures the French that he opposes independence in Saint-Domingue and pledges to support Napoleon’s agenda.
October 1801
A massive uprising against Louverture’s regime breaks out in the North and Moïse is rumored to be involved. In Limbé, west of Le Cap, 250 whites are killed and rebels occupy Gonaives with the goal of killing whites, uniting mulattoes and blacks and declaring Saint-Domingue independent. The rebels support popular land distribution and charge Louverture with exploiting the masses at France’s benefit. Moïse is known to oppose his uncle, and has refused to make his laborers work, saying “was not the executioner of his own color” and that “the blacks had not conquered their liberty to labor again under the rod and the whip on the properties of the white.”
Louverture has Moïse arrested, tried without defense, and shot. He brutally suppresses the uprising and 1,000 rebels are killed. The ruling class, split on Louverture’s actions, becomes further divided. Louverture’s left-wing support dwindles, considerably weakening his position. He becomes completely isolated from whites, mulattoes, and blacks, his former base of support.
24-31 Oct 1801
Leclerc sails from France for Saint-Domingue. He is Commander-in-Chief of France’s largest expeditionary army ever with 20,000 European troops, who are called “the elite of the French army.” Rochambeau is named second in command. Bonaparte gives Leclerc very specific instructions on the stages of the expedition, which he expects will take three months.
First stage, 15-20 days: Leclerc is to convince Saint-Domingue residents of France’s good will and peaceful intentions. Leclerc is to claim the troops are there to protect the colony and preserve its peace, allowing the troops to land and take control of the major port cities.
Second stage: wage war against the rebel army generals to break the masses’ moral and leave them leaderless.
Third stage: disarm all the blacks and mulattoes and force them back onto plantations to reinstate slavery. Bonaparte’s commands to Leclerc include “Do not allow any blacks having held a rank above that of a captain to remain on the island.”
October 1796
Power struggles develop in the face of Louverture’s growing power. To solidify his position and strengthen his ties, Sonthonax appoints Louverture Commander–in–Chief of the army. Laveaux sails to France as deputy while Sonthonax reluctantly stays in Saint-Domingue to perform his duties as civil commissioner. He plans to depart the colony in eighteen months when his assignment ends.
4 February 1802
General Christophe sets fire to Le Cap, burning it to the ground in anticipation of the European troops’ arrival.
“The most devastating war in the entire history of Saint Domingue had now begun.
6 February 1802
Leclerc enters Le Cap, which is now completely destroyed. He carries with him a letter from Napolean Bonaparte requesting Louverture’s surrender. In France, Bonaparte is undeterred, and from February 1802 to November 1803 sends 80,000 troops and 408 ships to reinforce Leclerc’s troops, some of who have been in Saint-Domingue since 1792.
Louverture hastily sends instructions to his leaders throughout the colony, warning that the French intend to restore slavery. All of his letters are intercepted and one by one his generals defect to fight for the French. Dessalines and Christophe are trapped in the North. By mid-February nearly half of Louverture’s army is fighting under Leclerc, who gains entire control of the South.
Louverture’s only option is to hold out until the rainy season, several months away, with the hope that France’s troops would succumb to the tropical climate and fall ill. His strategy was founded in reality: within the first two weeks of Leclerc’s arrival, two thousand European troops were already in the hospital, ¾ of them sick and the rest wounded. After three weeks, 500 more had died and another 1,000 were wounded.
Leclerc is forced to request an additional 6,000 apart from those already promised and further reinforcement of 2,000 per month for the next three months in order for his mission to succeed.
24 March 1802
The French suffer a major loss in the Battle of Crête-à-Pierrot when European troops attack a fort defended by Dessalines. Leclerc, attempting to break the resistance in the West, intended to recapture the fort to compensate for the fact that his campaign is already behind schedule.
Dessalines' forces are outnumbered, with 1,500 blacks facing 12,000 Europeans and colonists. Undeterred, Dessalines gives a rousing speech urging his countrymen to fight for independence:
“Take courage, I tell you, take courage. The whites from France cannot hold out against us here in Saint Domingue. They will fight well at first, but soon they will fall sick and die like flies. Listen well! If Dessalines surrenders to them a hundred times, he will betray them a hundred times. I repeat it, take courage and you will see that when the French are reduced to small, small numbers, we will harass them and beat them; we will burn the harvests and then take to the hills. They will be forced to leave. Then I will make you independent. There will be no more whites among us.”
Dessalines holds out against two attacks launched by Leclerc and then manages a “brilliantly maneuvered” evacuation of his troops through enemy lines ten times their own number. Leclerc’s inability to defeat Dessalines and his resistance army signifies a major turning point in the war.
25 March 1802
France, England and Spain sign the Treaty of Amiens, achieving peace for 14 months during the Napoleonic wars. By this point France has gained back control of many of the colonies it had lost in recent years.
26 April 1802
A warrant is issued in the colony for the arrest and capture of Louverture and Christophe. After several failed negotiations, Louverture tries once more to reach a settlement with the French, sending Christophe to confer with Leclerc in order to discover his intentions. Christophe deserts, taking with him 12,000 soldiers as well as artillery and munitions.
Leclerc makes an offer to Louverture which would allow him to retire with his staff, retain his army ranks and functions, and retire to a place of his choosing. Louverture, realizing that he can’t survive another loss, accepts. As a result Dessalines is forced to submit as well, and reluctantly joins the French, breaking ties with Louverture in the process. Dessalines is the more militant of the two, and holds the opinion that Louverture should have thrown out the French and declared independence when he learned of Leclerc’s expedition. Dessalines begins biding his time to unite the colony’s blacks and mulattoes in order to finally expel the French.
27 April 1802
Bonaparte approves a decree reestablishing slavery and the slave trade in Martinique, Tobago and Sainte-Lucie. Bonaparte insists that slavery won’t be restored in Saint-Domingue and Guadeloupe.
Three months after landing, when he had intended the campaign to be finished, Leclerc realizes that “the difficulties involved in reconquering Saint-Domingue and bringing it fully under French domination [are] eminently more formidable than Bonaparte had ever presumed.” A third of his original army is incapacitated and thousands more have been killed in battle. By now European troops are dying in hospitals at the rate of 30-50 per day. There are few treatment options: “the principle cities that had been burned to the ground offered little or no resources at all” and the Europeans are without medical supplies, clothes, or shoes.
In order to maintain his current position and take the mountains in the North and the West where the resistance army is concentrated, Leclerc estimates he needs 25,000 additional troops. He writes in June that “Every day the blacks become more audacious . . . . I am not strong enough to order a general disarmament or to implement the necessary measures . . . . The government must begin to think about sending out my successor.”
7 June 1802
Leclerc betrays his agreement with Louverture, deceiving the and imprisoning the governor general. Leclerc lures Louverture into a conference, arrests him, binds him “as a common criminal,” and ships him to France with his family and manservant. He is incarcerated and left “tragically, to die of consumption in an isolated prison cell high in the French Alps.”
July 1802
Indigenous popular movements reemerge in the South with the objective of expelling the French. The blacks and mulattoes see that, despite France’s claims, Leclerc fully intends to reinstate slavery.
7 July 1802
In Louverture’s absence, Leclerc temporarily restores peace and production and orders the resistance troops back to work. New waves of rebellion erupt when he tries to disarm and suppress laborers, who resist and take to the hills to join maroon guerrilla bands. Several rebel leaders control up to several thousand troops, who terrorize the whites as the insurrection becomes increasingly generalized.
By the end of July, French troop losses are “dramatically accelerated by the persistent ravages of the fever.” News reaches Saint-Domingue slavery has been restored in Guadeloupe, in keeping with the law passed by the French government to reopen slave trade. The blacks’ reactions to this development is damaging to Leclerc, who now blames his expeditions failures to date on the premature restoration of slavery:
“Had there been any initial doubt as to the purpose of Leclerc’s mission with its secret instructions, the restoration of slavery in Guadeloupe, combined now with his measures to disarm the black population and troops, unequivocally dispelled it and left the masses with one imperative objective: the unmitigated and permanent destruction of the French presence in Saint Domingue.”
August 1802
Saint-Domingue at last receives news of Bonaparte’s May decree that reestablished slavery in Martinique, Tobago and Sainte-Lucie. Despite Bonaparte’s reassurances that emancipation in Saint-Domingue will not be revoked, the slaves are already aware that he has reneged on the same promise in Martinique.
“The news of the restoration of slavery in the other French colonies fanned the flames of revolution in Saint-Domingue.”
Black and mulatto officers in the French army, incorporated after Louverture’s surrender, break with the French and rejoin the revolutionary troops and maroon guerrilla bands. Slave resistance against French increases in the North, prompting the South to become more organized as well. Insurrection is everywhere, and suspected plotters are “executed by the dozen” as the whites’ terror reaches new heights. The French resort to using terror as a method of control, and increase the frequency and severity of their violence against blacks and mulattoes.
The core of the revolution is now composed primarily of average laborers, not military leaders, who had already been fighting for over ten years. “The course of the struggle that they began in 1791 had transformed them; they were no longer, nor could they ever again be, slaves.” Despite setbacks these fighters continued to spread through the region to proselytize, recruit, assemble, and devise plans of action to overcome the French. “The whole burden of resistance now lay squarely upon their shoulders, and for resisting they would face firing squads, be hanged, drowned, even gassed to death.”
Henri Christophe points out “the danger (for France) is in the general opinion of the blacks.” As a result, Leclerc realizes he would have to kill all the blacks in Saint-Domingue to successfully complete his mission.
27 August 1802
In Saint Louis in the South blacks rise up against the whites, taking advantage of an insufficient level of troops. Black militia, many deserting the French, capture the fort during the night and take the city.
“This was the first time a city had been successfully been captured by insurgent blacks in the South.”
Insurrections throughout the region reflect the growing participation of black soldiers and low-ranking officers. These troops, forced to fight for the French when their leaders deserted, use their positions and arms to aid insurgent movements. At this point it becomes increasingly clear that France is steadily losing its campaign to take control of Saint-Domingue.
26 Sept 1802
A general insurrection spreads throughout the entire Grande-Anse region. Maroons descend from the mountains and set fire to five plantations and kill six managers. The outbreak is part of a much bigger plot planned by an extensive network for insurrectionary activity. One rebel leader had “established a whole network of spies and agents who carried out his instructions to visit the plantations of the area, to convince the workers that the French had arrived to put them back into slavery, that they must rise in revolt against the French government, and that at any given time they should assemble at Fond Rouge to receive orders and munitions . . .”
The French hunt for the rebels, killing anyone they suspect. Though Leclerc’s reports reassure Bonaparte that the situation is in control, the rebels gain on the Europeans. In the East, up to 5,000 revolutionary troops gather. Black and mulatto officers and soldiers desert with the French troops’ equipment and begin attacking cities. Entire plantations are abandoned or overthrown. There are multiple uprisings throughout the South.
2 October 1802
Leclerc realizes that in order to accomplish his goals it will be necessary to completely restart the colony, eliminating the rebels and importing new slaves to run the plantations.
He writes to Bonaparte: “[For] if my position has turned from good to critical, it is not just because of the yellow fever [which he along with his troops suffered from], but, as well, the premature reestablishment of slavery in Guadeloupe and the newspapers and letters from France that speak of nothing but slavery. Here is my opinion on this country: We must destroy all the blacks in the mountains – men and women – and spare only the children under 12 years of age. We must destroy half of those in the plains and must not leave a single colored person in the colony who has worn an epaulette.”
13-14 Oct 1802
Revolutionary leaders, including Dessalines and Christophe, at last defect from the French, taking with them black and mulatto generals and issuing a general call to arms.
A new revolutionary army forms with mostly black officers and rank-and-file soldiers. Blacks and mulattoes begin to form a national identity around their common goal of expelling the French.
2 November 1802
Leclerc dies of yellow fever. Before his death, Leclerc recommends to Bonaparte that Rochambeau succeed him: “He is a person of integrity, a good military man, and he hates the blacks.”
Rochambeau takes command as captain general of the colony, writing to Bonaparte for an additional 35,000 troops to defeat, disarm and drive back the blacks. He becomes known for his ruthless violence and massacres, even bringing man-eating dogs from Cuba to hunt the blacks.
“Command of the French forces thus fell to Rochambeau, in whose name and by whose orders so many atrocities and mass-murders, ghastly acts unparalleled since the days of slavery, had already been committed in the South and the West.”
1 January 1803
Rochambeau requests special permission to immediately proclaim the restoration of slavery as the French lose control of more and more of the colony. Rebellion erupts in Port-Salut in the South.
A Frenchman “renowned for his cruelties,” writes to Rigaud from Les Cayes: “These men who have risen today in insurrection have always conducted themselves in a manner deserving of praise for their leaders and the confidence of the government . . . I am without forces and I fear that this little insurrection at Port-Salut might spread.”
Now allied, insurgent blacks and mulattoes strike “at all points throughout the interior . . . the entire plain was in a state of insurrection as the black laborers began to raze the cane fields and set the plantations ablaze.”
The insurrection, powered by the populous, becomes generalized. The leaders “had organized and sustained the resistance against Leclerc independently” despite the defections of their leaders. They espouse their values, focusing on independence, voodoo, their goals and culture. Their world view has developed apart from that of their generals “because they had no real place in the Louverturian society that Toussaint had forged…”
Dessalines is threatened by the laborers’ independence and resistance to his leadership, and in response kills independent leaders who refuse to submit, saying they had “become obstacles to freedom and therefore had to be liquidated.”
7 April 1803
The French troops launch a final effort to subdue the rebel forces. The Europeans are without any money or supplies and are forced to trade their munitions for food sold by local women. The troops are heavily afflicted by yellow fever and weakened by famine.
In Grand-Anse, the French’s last stronghold, a new insurrection breaks out. Masses of black plantation laborers and local officers burn and devastate the region and spread their insurrection. Brigaud writes that the worst part “is that Grande-Anse affords these rebels twenty-five to thirty thousand black laborers, one quarter of who have already waged war against Rigaud during the occupation.”
30 April 1803
The Louisiana Purchase Treaty is signed and France cedes its North American territory to the United States. The sale marks Bonaparte's withdrawal from the western hemisphere as he turns his attentions away from the failed campaign in Saint-Domingue.
18 May 1803
Dessalines creates the Haitian flag at Arcahaie: He rips the white fabric from the French tricolor, with the red and blue representing the unity of blacks and mulattoes against the whites. With this, the Haitian flag is born. Black and mulatto generals swear allegiance to Dessalines, creating a cross-class alliance to fight their common enemy.
August 1803
The French evacuate their troops from Jérémie in the South.
17 October 1803
The revolutionary army takes control of Les Cayes in the South.
17 November 1803
General Rochambeau surrenders to Dessalines after losing the Battle of Vertières, agreeing to a cease-fire as long as French forces evacuate within 10 days.
Over the course of the campaign begun by Leclerc, France lost 50,000 men, and“In the name of slavery, she lost what had been the wealthiest and most flourishing colony in the Caribbean.”
28 November 1803
The remaining French troops evacuate Môle-Saint-Nicolas in the North.
30 November 1803
Dessalines, leading 8,000 men, takes possession of Le Cap, officially named Cap Français, and renames it Cap Haïtien. Rochambeau capitulates and flees.
1 January 1804
In Gonaïves, Dessalines proclaims Haiti’s independence, signaling the formation of the world’s first black republic. He publishes a Declaration of Independence, signed by himself and Christophe, and the colony “Saint-Domingue” is abolished forever. The original Taino name of Hayti is officially restored.
“The proclamation was a formal acknowledgement of the self-determination of those diverse and ordinary individuals of whom the black masses were composed.”
Though Haiti is independent, Haitians still fear that they will be invaded by outside forces. French troops remain in the eastern part of Hispaniola and France is actively lobbying England, Spain and the United States to isolate Haiti commercially and diplomatically. France emphasizes that Haiti is a threat to the countries’ plantation system and slaveholders. The global community shuns Haiti, a major contributing factor to Haiti’s later impoverishment.
Jan-Feb 1804
Dessalines orders the slaughter of the remaining French residents in Haiti after promising them protection. Blacks and mulattoes, most of them former slaves, exact revenge on the whites and as many as 4,000 are killed. They are urged on by Dessalines, who famously cried, "Koupe tèt, brule kay," meaning, "Cut their heads, burn their houses."
8 October 1804
Dessalines is crowned Emperor Jacques I of Haiti.
20 May 1805
Dessalines ratifies Haiti’s first constitution. To strengthen national unity and bring together the country’s various factions, the constitution proclaims all Haitians black. The constitution also legitimizes Dessalines’ regime, legalizing structures set in place since independence. The constitution reaffirms the permanent abolition of slavery, that all Haitians are free and equal; and above all Haitians’ inalienable right to land ownership.
Conclusion
Upon declaring independence, Haiti claimed a singular place in world history. The Haitian revolution, lasting from 1791 to 1804, culminated in the first independent nation in the Caribbean, the second democracy in the western hemisphere, and the first black republic in the world.
Since the revolution, over 200 years ago, Haiti has struggled with external and internal dilemmas. The revolutionary wars had destroyed nearly all of the country’s colonial infrastructure and production capabilities. In the 1800s Europeans and Americans ostracized the fledgling nation politically and economically, contributing to Haiti’s decline from one of the world’s wealthiest colonies to one of its most impoverished countries.
The 20th century ushered in an era of American occupation from 1915 to 1934 and totalitarian regimes under the Duvaliers from 1957 to 1987. After decades of political suppression, Haiti held new democratic elections and in 1991 President Jean-Bertrand Aristide took office. He was ousted just months later, and the following years were filled with coup d’états, military regimes, and daily violence.
In 2006, René Préval was elected president and since then Haiti has experienced a period of relative political and social calm. This stability was shaken most recently in 2008 when Haiti was hit by four successive hurricanes over the course of just weeks. The natural disasters resulted in hundreds of deaths, injuries and lost homes. Famine and disease swept the country, exacerbated by Haiti’s lack of infrastructure or governmental services.
Haiti will be recovering from these disasters for years, adding to its long list of challenges. Already the country is crippled by poverty. Additionally, Haiti has been commonly misrepresented for decades. American media, for example, have equated Haitians with savage voodoo ceremonies, HIV/AIDS, and “boat people” refugees beginning in the early 1900s. Aside from ignoring factual evidence, these accounts disregard the complexity and richness of Haiti’s resilient culture and people. Despite its poverty, Haiti is clearly an exceptional nation, and one that has had a profound impact on the world since it was claimed by Columbus over 500 years ago.