Haiti Prologue

Haitian Revolution (1791–1804)

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The Haitian Revolution was the world's only succesful slave revolt. The sussecful revolution of said slaves led to the creation of the worlds first free black republic. Haiti was known as Saint-Domingue and was controlled by the french. The people of Haiti freed themselves from French colonization and from slavery. They succeeded in permanently liberating an entire island. In 1789 Saint-Domingue, producer of 40 percent of the world's sugar, was the most valuable colony on earth and the number of slaves on the island was over 500,000. The slaves outnumbered all other people eight to one. On August 22, 1791, a great slave uprising plunged the country into civil war. Within the next ten days, slaves had taken control of the entire northern province in an unprecedented slave revolt that left the whites controlling only a few isolated fortified camps. The rebellious slaves killed 2,000 whites and burned or destroyed 280 sugar plantations. On April 4, 1792, the French legislature proclaimed the equality of all free people in the French colonies regardless of color; this provided equal civil rights to the gens de couleur, but did not end slavery On January 1, 1804, Dessalines, the new leader under the dictatorial 1801 constitution, declared Haiti a free republic. Haiti became the second independent nation in the Western Hemisphere, after the United States, following the only successful slave rebellion in world history.