1791-1804
THE HAITIAN SLAVE REVOLT
The Haitian Revolution was a successful insurrection by self-liberated enslaved people against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue, which is now the sovereign state of Haiti. The revolt began on August 22, 1791, and ended in 1804 with the former colony’s independence. The revolt involved Black, biracial, French, Spanish, British, and Polish participants. Former slave Toussaint Louverture proved to be Haiti’s most prominent general. The revolution was the only slave uprising that led to the founding of a state that was both free from slavery—though not from forced labor—and ruled by non-whites and former captives. It is now widely seen as a defining moment in the history of the Atlantic World.
The revolution’s effects on the institution of slavery were felt throughout the Americas. The end of French rule and the abolition of slavery in the former colony were followed by a successful defense of the freedoms the former enslaved people won and, with the collaboration of already free people of color, their independence from white Europeans. The revolution represented the largest slave uprising since the unsuccessful revolt of Spartacus against the Roman Republic nearly 1,900 years earlier. It challenged long-held European beliefs about alleged Black inferiority and about enslaved people’ ability to achieve and maintain their own freedom. The rebels’ organizational capacity and tenacity under pressure inspired stories that shocked and frightened slave owners throughout the hemisphere.
Source