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How Toussaint L’ouverture Rose from Slavery to Lead the Haitian Revolution

By: Kedon Willis

Updated: August 18, 2023 | Original: August 30, 2021

How did Toussaint L'ouverture, born into bondage in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti) and enslaved for more than half his life, come to lead the most successful slave revolt in history—and help precipitate the downfall of European colonialism in the western hemisphere?

Saint-Domingue in the late 18 th century thrived as the wealthiest colony in the Americas. Its sugar, coffee, indigo and cotton plantations minted money, fueled by a vast enslaved labor force. A French colony since 1697, it occupied the western third of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, while the Spanish had colonized the eastern side, called Santo Domingo (now the Dominican Republic ).

In 1791, revolution brewed among the island’s brutally enslaved majority—inspired in part by the egalitarian ideals driving France’s own recent revolution . As the island's enslaved workers organized to burn plantations and kill many owners, Toussaint initially laid low. Having been free for some 15 years, he farmed his own plot of land in the north of the island, while continuing to oversee his former owner’s plantation. Eventually, wielding knowledge of African and Creole medicinal techniques, he entered the war as a physician. But he quickly distinguished himself as a canny tactician and a strategic, charismatic leader.

As a general, Toussaint led his forces to victory over the planter class—and thousands of invading French troops. But that was only the start. Navigating the complex, ever-shifting politics of dueling colonial powers, he successfully repelled the aggressions of Europe’s mightiest nations (France, Spain and England), using his diplomatic guile to cannily play them off one other. He conquered the Spanish side of Hispaniola, uniting the island and establishing himself as governor. In that role, he worked to quell widespread domestic unrest and restore the island’s war-battered economy. And with an education steeped in Enlightenment philosophy , he built on those humanistic ideals to create a constitution that would forever abolish slavery.

Although Toussaint died in a French jail a year before Saint-Domingue gained full independence (and rechristened itself as Haiti) in 1804, his myriad efforts set the stage for the establishment of the second sovereign nation in the western hemisphere after America—and the world’s first sovereign Black state. Here’s how he did it.

He Played Empire Against Empire

In 1792, France was in a dicey situation. It had recently become a republic, stoking the ire of European monarchies. Furthermore, Saint-Domingue’s sustained slave rebellion had put France’s wealthiest colony in the Americas at risk of falling under the control of its enemies, England and Spain. So that same year, French commissioners arrived in Saint-Domingue in the apparent spirit of compromise. Rebel leaders, including Toussaint, refused the overture, choosing to do battle instead with the 6,000-man fleet France had also sent.

Toussaint was aware of his regiment’s lack of training, but he was also aware of France’s desperate position in the face of Spanish and British hostility. So when it suited his needs, he joined forces with France’s enemies.

Feigning outrage at the execution of King Louis XVI in 1793, he made an alliance with neighboring Santo Domingo, taking command of a Spanish auxiliary force to reclaim a swath of Saint-Domingue territory. He refused to negotiate with French commissioners until 1794, when France formally abolished slavery in its territories. Toussaint then rejoined the French forces, beat back the Spanish and began his sustained campaign against the British, who had their own designs on Saint-Domingue.

His army ousted British forces in 1798, causing them to lose more than 15,000 men and 10 million pounds in the process. Nonetheless, Toussaint continued to dangle the prospect of British influence in Saint-Domingue as a check against French complacency and to spur trade with Britain’s neighboring colony of Jamaica. Toussaint entered into a secret agreement with the British army that eased their naval blockade of imported goods.

He went a step further in 1799, opening diplomatic talks with the Americans to renew commercial ties that would benefit both economies—a major coup for Toussaint. In just two years, American exports to the colony rose more than 260 percent, to $7.1 million. The alliance with the Americans also afforded naval protection on trading vessels destined for Saint-Domingue, an important buffer against British aggressions.

He Played to Multiple Bases

To revitalize a local economy torn by conflict, Toussaint had to leverage his considerable political skills to reconcile the conflicting interests of Saint-Domingue’s racial, class, religious and cultural orders. Judging the resources of the merchant and planter classes as integral to rebuilding Saint-Domingue, Toussaint extended generous restitution policies in the name of republican fraternity, going so far as to punish any acts of retribution against former slaveholders. This ensured him a loyal base of allies who did his bidding at regional and international levels. Under his stewardship, Saint-Domingue initiated a robust civic overhaul and public-works projects that created roads, widened canals and improved public sanitation.

That extensive leniency to white citizens, alongside his increasingly autocratic measures to compel Black citizens to work on plantations, corroded his standing among the Black majority. Still, through much of his tenure as governor, he worked vigorously to safeguard their interests and ensure they were now paid for their labor. He traveled extensively to quell internal unrest, relying on his deep cultural ties and Afro-spiritualist cues to reinforce his image as their defender. Under his stewardship, thanks in large part to the efforts of the black masses, the island’s agricultural cultivation was restored up to two-thirds to what it had been prior to the 1791 uprisings, according to Toussaint’s biographer C.L.R. James.

He Cultivated His Legend

The secret to Toussaint’s impact lay also in the trait common to history’s greatest heroes—the forging of a persona that verged on the superhuman. James writes that Toussaint saw himself in the avenger role described by Enlightenment thinker Abbé Raynal: as a figure who rises up to eradicate human bondage. Toussaint led charges into battle, and survived numerous brushes with death, lending him a supernatural aura that he cultivated to enrapture followers and enemies alike.

His legend grew. One French official in Saint Domingue credited Toussaint’s ability to be in several places at once to his vitality and unmatched understanding of the terrain. And after Napoleon sent 20,000 French troops in 1802 to regain control of Saint-Domingue, a secretary in the expedition described Toussaint as like a tiger: visible where he wasn’t and invisible where he was. In time, for his unprecedented achievements, he would be hailed as the Black George Washington and the Napoleon Bonaparte of the Caribbean.

But these honorifics fail to capture the measure of Toussaint Louverture and his far-reaching impact. He was a singular leader who helped charter a revolution extraordinary in its insistence that any declaration of “inalienable liberties” rings hollow when constrained by notions of color or creed. His was a revolution that carried far wider geopolitical implications: Historians credit it with spooking France from further colonial endeavors in the hemisphere and inspiring Napoleon to offload the Louisiana territory to the United States, effectively doubling the young republic in size.

Toussaint would not live to see his country’s eventual independence. Captured during Napoleon’s 1802 expedition to subdue the colony, he was transported to a French jail, where he died a year later. While it was his radical deputy, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who would outlast the French assault and declare Haiti’s independence in 1804, it is Toussaint’s leadership that laid the groundwork for that extraordinary achievement.

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The Haitian Revolution

Trials of a young nation, u.s. occupation.

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The revolution was actually a series of conflicts during the period 1791–1804 that involved shifting alliances of enslaved Haitians, affranchis , mulattoes , and colonists, as well as British and French army troops. Several factors precipitated the event, including the affranchis ’ frustrations with a racist society, the French Revolution , nationalistic rhetoric expressed during Vodou ceremonies, the continuing brutality of enslavers, and wars between European powers. Vincent Ogé, a mulatto who had lobbied the Parisian assembly for colonial reforms, led an uprising in late 1790 but was captured, tortured, and executed. In May 1791 the French revolutionary government granted citizenship to the wealthier affranchis , but Haiti’s European population refused to comply with the law. Within two months isolated fighting broke out between Europeans and affranchis , and in August thousands of enslaved people rose in rebellion. The Europeans attempted to appease the mulattoes in order to quell the slave revolt, and the French assembly granted citizenship to all affranchis in April 1792. The country was torn by rival factions, some of which were supported by Spanish colonists in Santo Domingo (on the eastern side of the island, which later became the Dominican Republic) or by British troops from Jamaica . In 1793 Léger Félicité Sonthonax, who was sent from France to maintain order, offered freedom to enslaved people who joined his army; he soon abolished slavery altogether, and the following year the French government confirmed his decision. Spain ceded the rest of the island to France in the Treaty of Basel (1795), but war in Europe precluded the actual transfer of possession.

In the late 1790s Toussaint Louverture , a military leader and formerly enslaved person, gained control of several areas and earned the initial support of French agents. He gave nominal allegiance to France while pursuing his own political and military designs, which included negotiating with the British, and in May 1801 he had himself named “governor-general for life.” Napoléon Bonaparte (later Napoleon I ), wishing to maintain control of the island, attempted to restore the old regime (and European rule) by sending his brother-in-law, Gen. Charles Leclerc , with an experienced force from Saint-Domingue that included several exiled mulatto officers. Toussaint struggled for several months against Leclerc’s forces before agreeing to an armistice in May 1802; however, the French broke the agreement and imprisoned him in France. He died on April 7, 1803.

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Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Henry Christophe led a Black army against the French in 1802, following evidence that Napoleon intended to restore slavery in Saint-Domingue as he had done in other French possessions. They defeated the French commander and a large part of his army, and in November 1803 the viscount de Rochambeau surrendered the remnant of the expedition. The French withdrew from Haiti but maintained a presence in the eastern part of the island until 1809.

Independent Haiti

On January 1, 1804, the entire island was declared independent under the Arawak-derived name of Haiti. The young country had a shaky start; the war had devastated many plantations and towns, and Haiti was plagued with civil unrest, economic uncertainties, and a lack of skilled planners, craftsmen, and administrators. Many European powers and their Caribbean surrogates ostracized Haiti, fearing the spread of slave revolts , whereas reaction in the United States was mixed; slave states did all they could to suppress news of the rebellion, but merchants in the free states hoped to trade with Haiti rather than with European powers. More important, nearly the entire population was utterly destitute—a legacy of slavery that has continued to have a profound impact on Haitian history.

In October 1804 Dessalines assumed the title of Emperor Jacques I, but in October 1806 he was killed while trying to suppress a mulatto revolt, and Henry Christophe took control of the kingdom from his capital in the north. Civil war then broke out between Christophe and Alexandre Sabès Pétion , who was based at Port-au-Prince in the south. As the civil war raged, the Spanish, with British help, restored their rule in Santo Domingo in 1809. Christophe, who declared himself King Henry I in 1811, managed to improve the country’s economy but at the cost of forcing formerly enslaved people to return to work on the plantations. He built a spectacular palace (Sans Souci) as well as an imposing fortress (La Citadelle Laferrière) in the hills to the south of the city of Cap-Haïtien , where, with mutinous soldiers almost at his door, he committed suicide in 1820.

Jean-Pierre Boyer , who had succeeded to the presidency of the mulatto-led south on Pétion’s death in 1818, became president of the entire country after Christophe’s death. In 1822 he invaded and conquered Santo Domingo, which had declared itself independent from Spain the previous year and was then engaged in fighting the Spaniards. Boyer did abolish slavery there, but the Haitians monopolized government power and confiscated church property, foodstuffs, and other supplies. It was not until 1844 that the Haitians were expelled by a popular uprising. The occupation created a tradition of distrust between the two countries, and subsequent generations of Dominicans regarded the period as marked by cruelty and barbarism .

France recognized Haitian independence in 1825, in return for a large indemnity (nearly 100 million francs) that was to be paid at an annual rate until 1887. Britain recognized the state in 1833, followed by the United States in 1862 after the secession of the Southern slave states.

Boyer was overthrown in 1843. Between then and 1915 a succession of 20 rulers followed, 16 of whom were overthrown by revolution or were assassinated. Faustin-Élie Soulouque (Faustin I), a Black formerly enslaved person, became president in 1847 and designated himself “emperor for life” in 1849. He turned on his mulatto sponsors and became particularly repressive; however, his regime was in some ways a return to power for the Blacks. He tried unsuccessfully to annex the Dominican Republic , and in 1859 one of his generals, Fabre Geffrard, overthrew him. Geffrard encouraged educated mulattoes to join his government and established Haitian respectability abroad.

Throughout the 19th century a huge gulf developed between the small urban elite, who were mostly light-skinned and French-speaking, and the vast majority of Black, Creole-speaking people in rural areas. Social services and communications were almost nonexistent in the countryside, while Port-au-Prince was the center of culture , business, and political intrigue.

In the 1890s the United States attempted to gain additional military and commercial privileges in Haiti. In 1905 it took control of Haiti’s customs operations, and, prior to World War I , American business interests gained a secure financial foothold and valuable concessions in the country.

From 1915 to 1934 Haiti was occupied by U.S. Marines . The United States claimed that its action was justified under the Monroe Doctrine (the right of the United States to prevent European intervention in the Western Hemisphere) as well as on humanitarian grounds. However, many Haitians believed that the Marines had really been sent to protect U.S. investments and to establish a base to protect the approaches to the Panama Canal . Haiti signed a treaty with the United States—originally for 10 years but later extended—establishing U.S. financial and political domination. In 1918, in an election supervised by the Marines, a new constitution was introduced that permitted foreigners to own land in Haiti.

One effect of the Marine occupation was the nominal reestablishment of the mulatto elite’s control of the government. Black Haitians, in contrast, felt that they were excluded from public office and subjected to racist indignities at the hands of the Marines, including the corvée ( statute labor , or forced labor for public works); in response, rural cacos (guerrillas) carried out a series of attacks. The Marines’ public works program included building new health clinics and sewerage systems, but most Haitians felt that the Marines’ efforts were inadequate.

In October 1930 Haitians chose a national assembly for the first time since 1918. It elected as president Sténio Joseph Vincent. In August 1934 U.S. Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt withdrew the Marines; however, the United States maintained direct fiscal control until 1941 and indirect control over Haiti until 1947. In 1935 a plebiscite extended Vincent’s term to 1941 and amended the constitution so that future presidents would be elected by popular vote.

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section The Haitian Revolution

Introduction, colonial saint domingue.

• Slave Resistance
• Contemporary Accounts
• Histories of Haiti
• Modern Overviews
• Collections of Essays and Primary Sources
• The French Revolution and the Colonies
• Political Thought
• From Insurrection to Emancipation
• British and Spanish Involvement
• Toussaint Louverture
• The United States
• The Leclerc Expedition and the War for Independence
• Religion and the Revolution
• Haitian Independence and Jean-Jacques Dessalines
• Literary Representations
• Ramifications Abroad
• International Reactions and Remembrance

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The Haitian Revolution by Laurent Dubois , Julia Gaffield LAST REVIEWED: 28 October 2011 LAST MODIFIED: 28 October 2011 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199766581-0030

The Haitian revolution was a complicated and trans-regional event, one that brought together actors, ideas, and institutions from three empires—France, Spain, and Great Britain—as well as the United States. The scholarship on the Haitian revolution, too, has been produced in a wide range of contexts and languages. The past decades have seen an explosion of such scholarship, notably in the United States, which has substantially expanded our understanding of the cultural, social, and political dynamics of the colony of Saint Domingue and the process that led to the creation of independent Haiti in 1804. But this scholarship has built on essential work by previous generations, most importantly on the work of Haitian historians going back to the 19th century, which those interested in the period should also continue to consult. This bibliography, necessarily selected, attempts to foreground what we consider to be the essential works on the period. While it is tilted toward the presentation of English-language sources, we have also included a selection of important French-language works.

The French acquired the western third of Hispaniola, Saint Domingue, as a colony in 1659. During the 18th century, French colonists transformed the colony into a land of export agriculture by establishing large sugar and coffee plantations as well as smaller indigo, cacao, and cotton plantations. The colonists purchased slaves from Africa through the transatlantic slave trade to labor these plantations. Saint Domingue quickly became an enormous source of wealth for metropolitan France. The population of the colony was overwhelmingly enslaved with a minority of whites and free people of color. Hector and Moïse 1990 is an excellent French-language overview of the history of Saint-Domingue. Cauna 2003 provides a detailed study of plantation life, and Garraway 2005 explores representations of sexuality in the colony. Frostin 1975 explores the political activities of the white population before the revolution, while McLellan 1992 examines the intellectual and scientific activities among the colony’s elite. Garrigus 2006 and King 2007 provide the most detailed studies of free people of color in Saint Domingue.

Cauna, Jacques de. Au temps des isles a sucre: Histoire d’une plantation de Saint-Domingue au XVIIIe siècle . Hommes et Sociétés. Paris: Karthala, 2003.

One of the most detailed studies of plantation life in Saint Domingue, based on plantation papers and correspondence from one major sugar plantation.

Frostin, Charles. Les révoltes blanches à Saint-Domingue aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles . Collection Histoire et Littérature Haïtiennes. Paris: L’École, 1975.

Examines the political mobilization among whites in Saint Domingue from its earliest days as a colony, providing a rich portrait of the governance and social life of the colony.

Garraway, Doris Lorraine. The Libertine Colony: Creolization in the Early French Caribbean . Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005.

A study of French accounts of the social world of the French Antilles during the 17th and 18th centuries, with an emphasis on discourses surrounding gender and sexuality.

Garrigus, John D. Before Haiti: Race and Citizenship in French Saint-Domingue . Americas in the Early Modern Atlantic World. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

Provides an analysis of research on free people of color from the southern province of Saint Domingue, following the history of the group from colonial times through the revolution. Emphasizes the frontier nature of the colony and argues that this characteristic allowed for the development of a large mixed-race population and a society organized by a class hierarchy.

Hector, Michel, and Claude Moïse. Colonisation et esclavage en Haïti: Le régime colonial français à Saint-Domingue (1625–1789) . Port-au-Prince: H. Deschamps, 1990.

An excellent overview of the colonial history of Saint Domingue by two of Haiti’s most important historians.

King, Stewart R. Blue Coat or Powdered Wig: Free People of Color in Pre-Revolutionary Saint Domingue . Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2007.

Studies the free colored population in Saint Domingue primarily using notarial records. Emphasizes distinctions between urban and rural groups and the occupations of individuals as planters or policemen and soldiers.

McLellan, James E. Colonialism and Science: Saint-Domingue in the Old Regime . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.

Through an exploration of Enlightenment culture and thought in colonial Saint Domingue, this book provides one of the most detailed portraits of the social and cultural life among the planter elite in the colony.

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Haitian Revolution

By Paul Campbell | Reader-Nominated Topic

The Haitian Revolution, the most successful slave revolt in the history of the modern world, caused large numbers of both Black and white people to flee the Caribbean, with many relocating to the United States. In 1793 Philadelphia received hundreds of these refugees, including white slaveholders and their enslaved Africans. Foreign policy decisions also were made in Philadelphia, the nation’s capital during the 1790s. Therefore, on both the local and national levels the Haitian Revolution played an important role in Philadelphia’s federal period.

Occurring on what was then known as the French colony of St. Domingue, the Haitian Revolution lasted from 1791 to 1804. The army of rebelling slaves, commanded by Toussaint L’Ouverture (1743-1803), wrested control of the colony from its white rulers, and, after a series of brutal power struggles, Haiti eventually became the first Black-led nation in the Western Hemisphere.

Refugees arriving from St. Domingue had a definitive influence on the culture of the city. The Haitian immigrants of African descent added diversity to Philadelphia’s Black community. It became common to find people of color with French names, and the French language could be frequently heard on the street. Also, the congregations of the city’s Catholic churches, particularly St. Joseph’s , became instantaneously biracial. Philadelphia residents, feeling sympathy for the whites who had lost land and possessions, raised nearly $14,000 in relief aid.

The refugees were not exempt from the terms of the Pennsylvania Gradual Abolition Act of 1780 , so there was controversy upon their arrival in Philadelphia. The Act stipulated that enslaved individuals had a right to claim their freedom after six months of residing in the state. As a result, from 1793 to 1796 there were 456 manumissions of West Indian slaves in Philadelphia. Most, however, especially if they were young, became indentured servants for varying periods of time.

Yellow Fever’s Toll

It was and continues to be speculated that the yellow fever was brought to Philadelphia by ships carrying Dominguan refugees. Benjamin Rush (1746-1813), the eminent physician and abolitionist, sincerely believed that Black people had immunity to the illness, and, as such, thought they had an obligation to attend to the afflicted. The Free African Society , possibly the first African American benevolent society in the United States, concluded that acting on Rush’s plea for help would strike a blow against racism by showing how Black people could be valuable citizens. Led by former slaves Richard Allen (1760-1831) and Absalom Jones (1746-1818), the Society demonstrated remarkable courage by nursing the sick and burying the dead. Tragically, Rush was wrong in his estimation that Black people were immune to the fever; they died at a rate almost equal to that of whites.

During the decade the federal capital was in Philadelphia, United States policy toward St. Domingue changed substantially. Important policy decisions emanated from the presidential residence , located at Sixth and Market Streets. George Washington (1732-99), president until 1797, was not supportive of the Dominguans in rebellion, but his successor, John Adams (1735-1826), took a different position following a visit by Joseph Bunel, Toussaint L’Ouverture’s diplomatic representative. Bunel arrived in 1798 to meet with U.S. government officials accompanied by his wife, Marie Bunel. Marie, a free Black creole, worked in the city as an independent merchant, choosing to stay even after the revolution concluded.

Bunel reportedly met with Adams in 1798 or 1799, and trade subsequently opened up between St. Domingue and the United States. It is probable that Adams saw this move as an opportunity to lend support to those fighting a common enemy, as the United States was then engaged in a quasi-war with France. It was also a chance to help American merchants by gaining a valuable trading partner in the West Indies. However, the good will did not last for long. Relations between the two republics soured after Adams left office in 1800, and the United States did not officially recognize Haiti until 1862.

Paul Campbell is an M.A. candidate in American History at Temple University. He also works as an interpretive Park Guide at Independence National Historical Park. (Author information current at time of publication.)

Copyright 2013, Rutgers University 

The President's House (1790s)

Historical Society of Pennsylvania

The President's House, located at Sixth and High (Market) Streets, was the setting for a significant change in United States policy regarding the Haitian Revolution. George Washington and John Adams resided and produced policy within this house while Philadelphia served as the nation's capital, prior to the federal government's move to the District of Columbia. Washington was not supportive of the Dominguans rebellion and refrained from trading with the new government. But after Haitian diplomatic representative Joseph Bunel reportedly met with President John Adams in 1798 or 1799, Adams shifted foreign policy and opened economic trade between St. Domingue and the United States. This watercolor by an unknown painter depicts the President's House as it would have looked in the 1790s.

• President's House Site

Visit Philadelphia

Pictured here is 2010 in the President's House site, located on Sixth and Market Streets in Independence National Historical Park. The open-air exhibit consists of partial walls that suggest the appearance of the President's House while George Washington and John Adams resided there. The exhibit interprets the national policies created in the President's House, the narrative of slavery in the United States in the early years of the United States, and the story of nine slaves who were owned by Washington and who lived within this house during his presidency. Among the subjects are the Haitian Revolution and Joseph Brunel, showing the prominence that the Haitian Revolution had in Philadelphia and the nation in the 1790s. (Photograph by G. Widman)

Related Topics

• Philadelphia and the World
• Philadelphia and the Nation
• Cradle of Liberty

Time Periods

• Capital of the United States Era
• American Revolution Era
• Center City Philadelphia
• Free African Society
• U.S. Congress (1790-1800)
• Slavery and the Slave Trade
• Philadelphia and Its People in Maps: The 1790s
• Yellow Fever
• French Revolution
• France and the French
• Red City (The)

Related Reading

Girard, Philippe R. “Trading Races: Joseph and Marie Bunel, a Diplomat and a Merchant in Revolutionary St. Domingue and Philadelphia.” From Journal of the Early Republic Vol. 30 No. 3 (Fall 2010): 351-376.

Klepp, Susan E. “‘How Many Precious Souls are Fled’?: The Magnitude of the 1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic.” From A Melancholy Scene of Devastation: The Public Response to the 1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic , edited by J. Worth Estes and Billy G. Smith, 163-82. Canton, MA: Science History Publications/ USA, 1997.

Nash, Gary. Forging Freedom: The Formation of Philadelphia’s Black Community, 1720-1840 . Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988.

——. The Forgotten Fifth: African Americans in the Age of Revolution. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006.

—–. “Reverberations of Haiti in the American North: Black Saint Dominguans in Philadelphia.” Pennsylvania History 65 (1998): 44-73.

Newman, Richard S. Freedom’s Prophet: Bishop Richard Allen, the AME Church, and the Black   Founding Fathers . New York: New York University Press, 2008.

The United States Department of State, Office of the Historian. “Milestones: 1784-1800.” The United States and the Haitian Revolution, 1791-1804.  

White, Ashli.  Encountering Revolution: Haiti and the Making of the Early Republic . Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010.

Related Collections

• The Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection Temple University Libraries
• Independence National Historical Park Library and Archives Third and Walnut Streets, Philadelphia.
• Historical Society of Pennsylvania 1300 Locust Street, Philadelphia.

Related Places

• African American Museum in Philadelphia
• The Benjamin Rush House Site
• Free African American Society historical marker
• Mother Bethel AME Church
• Richard Allen Museum
• Old St. Joseph's Church
• St. Thomas African Episcopal Church historical marker

Backgrounders

Connecting Headlines with History

• In Philadelphia, Haitians celebrate heritage and seek U.S. protection (WHYY, May 19, 2017)
• Haitian Immigration (In Motion: The African American Migration Experience)
• Toussaint L'Ouverture: A Biography and Autobiography (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
• Latin American Revolutionaries Primary Source Set (Digital Public Library of America)

Connecting the Past with the Present, Building Community, Creating a Legacy

HIS 420: Historiography

• American Revolution
• French Revolution
• Haitian Revolution
• Evaluating Sources
• Citing Sources
• Writing a Historiography

Library Resources

Here are a few books from the McGill Library Collection to get you started. 

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• Last Updated: Aug 27, 2021 11:55 AM
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HIST 143 - Haitian Revolution: Primary Sources

• Background Information
• Primary Sources
• Contemporary Haiti

What Are Primary Sources

"Primary sources are original records created at the time historical events occurred or well after events in the form of memoirs and oral histories. Primary sources may include letters, manuscripts, diaries, journals, newspapers, speeches, interviews, memoirs, documents produced by government agencies such as Congress or the Office of the President, photographs, audio recordings, moving pictures or video recordings, research data, and objects or artifacts such as works of art or ancient roads, buildings, tools, and weapons. These sources serve as the raw material to interpret the past, and when they are used along with previous interpretations by historians, they provide the resources necessary for historical research." (American Library Association, Reference and User Services, History Section)

Featured Titles

The Haitian Revolution:  A Documentary History:    Thi wonderful collection  "draws on a variety of exewitness accounts, letters, and governmental documents to examine the causes of the Haitian Revolution and the impact it had on the eighteenth-century Atlantic World."

Haiti: An Island Luminous is a site to help readers learn about Haiti’s history. Created by historian Adam M. Silvia and hosted online by Digital Library of the Caribbean, it combines rare books, manuscripts, and photos scanned by archives and libraries in Haiti and the United States with commentary by over one hundred (100) authors from universities around the world.

Click on the image to access the site.  Then click on "Learn" to get started.

Primary Sources from SCU Collections

Using oscar to find primary sources:.

You can also use the library online catalog, OSCAR , to find collections of published primary sources or books including primary documents.

Just enter your keywords and add one of the following words, depending on what you are looking for:  correspondence, papers, speeches, memoirs, personal narratives, documents, sources. 

• Haiti and revolution and (sources or documents or letters)

Here's a sample of what you would find in OSCAR:

• The Haitian Revolution:  A Documentary History
• Secret history; or, The horrors of St. Domingo, [electronic resource] : in a series of letters, written by a lady at Cape Francois, to Colonel Burr, late vice-president of the United States, principally during the command of General Rochambeau.
• "The horrible combats" : a document on the revolution in Saint-Domingue, 1790 / by Sara Shannon.
• Slave revolution in the Caribbean, 1789-1804 : a brief history with documents / Laurent Dubois and John D. Garrigus.
• Haytian papers:  a collection of the very interesting proclamations and other official documents: together with some accounts of the rise, progress, and present state of the kingdom of Hayti (1816)
• Facing racial revolution : eyewitness accounts of the Haitian Insurrection / Jeremy D. Popkin [editor].
• African Americans and the Haitian revolution : selected essays and historical documents / edited by Maurice Jackson and Jacqueline Bacon.
• Contrary voices : representations of West Indian slavery, 1657-1834 / edited by Karina Williamson.   (In part 4 of the book, you will find a collection of primary documents on the Haitian revolution)

Find articles in the U.S. Press about the Haitian revolution

To locate articles in American newspapers and magazines on the Haitian revolution from 1794 to 1804, use the following database:

• Link to sample search in APS Online

Primary Sources on the Web

Many primary sources have been digitized and made available on the web.  The following sites are good starting points to find documents and other sources related to  the Haitian Revolution. I have tried to include mostly sites with English translations.  There are of course many others with documents in French only. 

• Haiti History Archive Collection of primary sources on the Haitian Revolution and Toussaint Louverture translated in English by the volunteers of the  The Marxists Internet Archive (MIA, http://www.marxists.org/)  
• Memoirs of General Toussaint Louverture,Written by Himself
• Remember Haiti - John Carter Brown Library "Site showcasing a selection of books from the John Carter Brown Library that are available online through the Internet Archive. Created with the support of partners from around the world, the intent of this library is to provide access to the remarkable history of Haiti."
• Haiti and the Atlantic World " This website seeks to encourage the discussion about Haiti's founding documents and their influences on the broader Atlantic. 
• The Louverture Project  An open-content resource that includes encyclopedic entries, timelines, images, maps, and primary source documents.
• Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity: Slavery and the Haitian Revolution This site includes background information, images, statistics, and primary documents.
• Marronnage in Saint-Domingue (Haiti) Collection of fugitive slave notices  published in the colony's principal newspaper, Affiches Americaines, between 1766 and 1790.   
• A Colony in Crisis: The Saint Domingue Grain Shortage of 1789 Translated and created primary sources from an episode in the history of Saint-Domingue
• Theater in Saint Domingue, 1764-1791 Articles and announcements from the Saint-Dominguan newspaper known as "Affiches Americaines" about the vibrant theater life in the French colony during that period.  Notes are in English.
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• Last Updated: Aug 14, 2024 3:01 PM
• URL: https://libguides.scu.edu/Hist143

Why The Haitian Revolution is So Important Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Introduction

The haitian revolution.

The Haitian revolution was one of the most important events in the history of the New World as it established the first “political state of entirely free individuals” (Knight 2000). Before the revolution, planters’ prosperity was achieved at a high price. So harsh was the system that slave fertility was well below replacement, which required a constant supply of new imports. There were periodic slave uprisings and escapes. During the Haitian Revolution, Haiti’s cultural identity emerged. Its core elements are the Creole language; Voodoo beliefs and practices; the value attached to individual landholding, no matter how small the land; enthusiasm for trade; cultural creativity; and racial pride.

The Haitian revolution was a watershed event in history because Haiti became the first free black republic in the world.

Historians (Knight 2000) admit that the Haitian experience also differs significantly from that of Latin America. Nineteenth-century independence for Latin America was the product of locally born elites outlasting a weakened Spain in war and peace. Independence was not born of slave revolts, populist causes, or popular insurrections. Before the revolution, some blacks were also free because they had bought or had won their freedom. Many of the freedmen and women began to cultivate another crop, coffee, in the hilly regions (Nash 5). They and the white coffee growers staged sporadic uprisings against local sugar-dominated colonial authorities from 1763 to 1770 because they objected to the governor’s decision to reestablish a militia in which the rich sugar plantation owners would be named the officers and because they objected to the colonial government’s constraints on trading with countries other than France.

On the eve of the French Revolution, all was not quiet in Haiti among the nearly 30,000 free mulattoes and blacks, the 40,000 whites, and around a half-million slaves. The storming of the Bastille in Paris unleashed desires and fears of change in the colonies. Freedmen and women desired immediate equality with the whites; slave leaders wished for freedom pure and simple; some whites supported the monarchy in opposition to those who supported changes of various kinds. The clash of interests, due partly to (1) purely local interests, (2) events in France, (3) the declaration of freedom for all slaves in Haiti in 1793, and (4) the British and Spanish invasion, contributed to the confusion and growing conflict on the island. It culminated in a revolution that devastated the countryside and destroyed slavery and the plantation system (Knight 2000).

Revolution began in 1791 with a spontaneous slave insurrection in the north. Boukman, a slave working as a coachman and known to be a Voodoo priest, organized it. He and his followers were captured and killed but not until they W killed many slave owners. Freed blacks and mulattoes began agitating for full rights more peacefully through letters and petitions, but their leaders, Vincent Ogé and Jean-Baptiste Chavannes were tortured and killed by whites blinded by hate and fear of any change. In 1794 he shifted his allegiance to the new French republic fighting against the Spanish and British, who occupied much of the colony. Long campaigns marked by innovative military tactics allowed him to consolidate his forces and to rout the foreigners (Knight 2000). He took the Spanish city of Santo Domingo in 1801, becoming the undisputed leader of the whole island, but he made no declaration of independence. These actions were closely followed by Americans who were happy to see French influence weaken or who, because of their abolitionist ideas, wished to find examples of heroic black leadership and statesmanship (Wesley 2008).

Toussaint organized a military administrative system for the island and called for a constituent assembly in 1801, which prepared a constitution. The document named him governor-general for life. Faced with economic collapse, he arranged for the state to take plantations abandoned by their white and mulatto owners and to lease them to senior army officers and government officials. Guaranteed modest wages, quarters, and medical care, the former slaves were to be refixed as tenants on the land, no longer free to move about at will. In short, he was the first Haitian leader to institute forced labor. The rise of a black leader acting on his initiative was unacceptable to Napoleon, who was preparing to reestablish slavery. Profiting from a momentary peace in Europe, the French emperor launched a massive naval invasion in 1802 to reassert absolute French control over Saint Domingue. At first, the superior French forces rolled back the blacks, and through a ruse, they captured and exiled Toussaint in 1802 (Knight 2000).

Toussaint’s lieutenant, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, took up leadership and at the battle of La Crête-à-Pierrot broke the French stranglehold. The war continued without mercy for black, brown, and white. Yellow fever aided Dessalines and his second in command, mulatto Alexandre Pétion, by killing his French adversary, Admiral Leclerc. The atrocities committed by French troops under Leclerc’s successor, General Donatien Rochambeau, and the dread of re-enslavement brought unity to the blacks and browns. With the decline of the metropolitan settlers who died or fled and the death of 55,000 French soldiers and sailors from the revolutionaries’ weapons and disease, Napoleon’s image of a “New World Empire” was forever shattered. What had begun as a slave uprising ended on 1 January 1804 with the declaration of independence of “Haiti,” the Indian name chosen by Dessalines (who, according to tradition, also created the nation’s new flag by ripping the white from the French Tricolor) (Geggus 5).

Like Haiti, other Caribbean societies were founded through colonization, which destroyed the indigenous pre-colonial peoples. Jamaica and Suriname in particular had a series of slave uprisings that led to communities of freed slaves being established in the interior. “The impact of the Haitian Revolution was both immediate and widespread. The antislavery fighting immediately spawned unrest throughout the region, especially in communities of Maroons in Jamaica, and among slaves in St. Kitts” (Knight 2000). Yet those maroon runaway slave societies never sought or attained national liberation. They remained isolated, remote, rural enclaves of the descendants of freed slaves (Geggus 7).

The Haiti free black republic was an important event because it was not until 1960 that Jamaica gained its national independence, Suriname in 1976. Haiti’s independence in 1804 preceded the other island-states, in some cases by over 150 years. It involved no peaceful or parliamentary transfer of power. The plantation slave economy and society ended bloodily by revolution. Elsewhere, slavery held on until 1832 in the British possessions, 1848 in the French islands, and as late as 1868 in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic (Geggus 8). During the nineteenth century, the first world of the Haitian elites left people in the second world free to till their plots, to worship as they chose, to make their marital arrangements, and to use Creole. The elites created by the revolution were content to extract a share of the peasant’s produce without demanding their loyalty.

Geggus, D.P. The Impact of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World (The Carolina Lowcountry and the Atlantic World). University of South Carolina Press, 2002.

Knight, F.W. The Haitian Revolution . 2008. Web.

Nash, G.B. Race and Revolution . Madison House Publishers, Inc, 1990.

Wesley, Ch. H. The Struggle for the Recognition of Haiti and Liberia as Independent Republics. 2008. Web.

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IvyPanda. (2021, September 28). Why The Haitian Revolution is So Important. https://ivypanda.com/essays/why-the-haitian-revolution-is-so-important/

"Why The Haitian Revolution is So Important." IvyPanda , 28 Sept. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/why-the-haitian-revolution-is-so-important/.

IvyPanda . (2021) 'Why The Haitian Revolution is So Important'. 28 September.

IvyPanda . 2021. "Why The Haitian Revolution is So Important." September 28, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/why-the-haitian-revolution-is-so-important/.

1. IvyPanda . "Why The Haitian Revolution is So Important." September 28, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/why-the-haitian-revolution-is-so-important/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Why The Haitian Revolution is So Important." September 28, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/why-the-haitian-revolution-is-so-important/.

The Haitian Revolution essay

The Haitian Revolution started as a massive slave uprising on August, 1791. A massive slave uprising erupted in the French colony Saint-Domingue which is now called Haiti. The rebellion was fueled by a Vodou service that was organized by Boukman, a Voudou hougan or High Priest. Most historians view this revolt as the most celebrated event that began the 13-year revolution that culminated in the independence of Haiti in the year 1804. Saint-Domingue became France’s wealthiest producing colony in the eighteenth century.

A plantation system that was ran by slaves, imported from Africa brought the wealth of men who were mainly French planters from Africa and France. The third and fourth positions of the stratified class system were filled by a few middle class of white men, but the majority of men were black. The colony was in a melee with several revolutionary movements, at the time of the uprising from the slaves. The planters were moving toward independence from France and the free colored people wanted a full citizenship, while the slaves wanted their freedom.

All were inspired by the French Revolution of 1789 that wanted equality and freedom. Toussaint L’ Ouverture was one of the most remembered leaders of the Haitian Revolution who was a former slave. “He organized armies of former slaves that defeated the Spanish and British forces,” explains (Heinl, 1996) He conquered Santo Domingo by 1801, which is currently called Dominican Republic and he eradicated slavery and gave himself the title of governor-general for life over the entire island which he fought for and won.

Napoleon Bonaparte in 1801, sent out General Leclerc and thousands of troops to arrest Toussaint and to reinstate slavery and to restore the French rule was described by Carolyn Fick, (1990, Fick) Toussaint was sent to France after being captured, after being deceived. He died in prison in 1803. One of Toussaint’s generals, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, led the last battle and defeated Napoleon’s forces.

Related essays:

• Haiti Environmental Issues essay
• What Comprises a Revolution? CHAPTER I essay
• Jewish Experience During the French Revolution essay
• The Haitian Massacre of 1937 essay

Dessalines declared the nation as independent on January 1, 1804, when it became known as Haiti, the country that was the first black republic in the world and the first independent nation in Latin America. The year 2004 will commemorate the bicentennial celebration of the Haitian Revolution where many will take part in the event, remembering the brave battle in the Haitian Revolution.

Most accounts of the Haitian Revolution focus on the role of the North and famous leaders such as Toussaint L’ Ouverture, along with Dessalines and Henry Christophe. They are the main people who are remembered for their bravery in Haiti, today. Many of the freed slaves of Saint-Domingue settled in New Orleans, profoundly influencing the history of that city.

1990, Fick, Carolyn E. , The Making of Haiti, The Saint Domingue Revolution, p. 23 1996, Heinl, Robert Debs, Gordon Heinl, Written in Blood, The Story of the Haitian People

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How the Haitian Revolution is still relevant for Massachusetts

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• Amanda Beland

Massachusetts has the third-largest Haitian diaspora in the country, with more than 87,000 Haitians calling the state home. The Haitian community has a long history in Massachusetts, and more migrants from Haiti have been making their way to the state as a result of renewed political turmoil in the country.

To grasp some of current pressures on the community, it's helpful to understand what happened after the Haitian Revolution.

This week marks 233 years since the revolution began. It's a story of enslaved Africans revolting against their captors and a brutal system of slavery. Over the course of 13 years, Haitians fought French colonial powers to gain independence in 1804. We'll talk about the history of the revolution, plus learn more about how the local Haitian community grew in Massachusetts.

This segment aired on August 21, 2024.

• A portrait of Haitians trying to survive without a government

Amanda Beland Senior Producer Amanda Beland is a producer and director for Radio Boston. She also reports for the WBUR newsroom.

Simón Rios Reporter Simón Rios is an award-winning bilingual reporter in WBUR's newsroom.

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Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood is on borrowed time. A film is documenting it all

MIAMI — For decades a neighborhood in Miami known as Little Haiti has been the center of the Haitian community. But what's made the area so unique now has the attention of developers.

A filmmaker wanted to document the changes and highlight the struggles of people living there — and it's all part of a film released this month.

The film Mountains tells the story of a family that’s experiencing the changes firsthand in Little Haiti. It’s shot with a Haitian American cast with dialogue in Haitian Creole and is being released nationwide this month.

Little Haiti is a neighborhood known for the colorful storefronts of convenience stores, restaurants and botanicas lining Miami’s Second Avenue. People sit on chairs outside the stores and their homes as the occasional rooster struts by. Haitians fleeing poverty and political repression began coming here in the 1970s and '80s. It wasn’t until 2016 though, that Miami officially designated the neighborhood “Little Haiti.”

It’s the setting for the first full-length feature by Haitian American filmmaker Monica Sorelle . At Choublak, a coffee shop and visitor’s center in Little Haiti, Sorelle told NPR in an interview, “We actually shot here. The scene where Esperanza’s on her walk and stops at the vendor. It was here.”

Sorelle spent a lot of time in Little Haiti when she was growing up. Developers have long been eyeing this area. But redevelopment moved into high gear over the last decade after they transformed an adjacent neighborhood, Wynwood, into a wealthier arts and nightlife district .

Sorelle saw it happening in Little Haiti when she returned to Miami after film school in 2014. “I started realizing and noticing the changes in the neighborhood,” she says. “And started seeing a lot of the same developers that were working in Wynwood were buying up properties in Little Haiti.”

Sorelle’s film opens with scenes of crews using heavy machinery to demolish buildings in the neighborhood. It’s the kind of thing she was seeing daily there and in Wynwood where she was working at the time.

One day, Sorelle noticed demolition workers ending their day and one crossing the street as he walked back home. She says, “The question came up, like what if he lives over there and he crosses the street to demolish his own neighborhood and redevelop his own neighborhood?”

That idea grew into the script for Mountains . A Miami nonprofit, Oolite Arts, provided important funding for a microbudget film with a Haitian American cast.

Shooting it in Haitian Creole made it difficult to find financial backers. Robert Colom, who co-wrote the script and produced the film, says, “A big production company that we met with in New York said, ‘We can make this together for $2 million and in English and with stars.’ It just wasn’t the idea that we had for this film. To be able to tell an authentic story about an experience of Little Haiti, I think we had to do it in the way that we did.”

The film’s title, Mountains , is taken from a Haitian proverb, “Behind mountains, there are more mountains.” It’s a nod to the challenges the story’s main character, Xavier, and all immigrants face as they adapt to a new country. Sorelle says, “That looks like, if I work hard, I will be able to provide. And I will be able to climb. And he has worked hard and he has been able to provide. And he has a house, you know. But the minute he wants more, that’s when he starts to realize that it’s not as accessible to him as he thought.” In the film, Xavier becomes frustrated with his inability to move his family into a bigger home.

An important part of the movie, and Haitian culture, is rara, an impromptu street parade with music that harks back to the revolution that brought Haiti its independence. Sorelle says raras used to happen almost every Friday. “You would be in your home. And then you would just hear the distant sound of a drum or a horn,” she says. “And all of a sudden, there’s like this beautiful, spontaneous street parade that a lot of Haitians would join in on.” Rara parades are less common in Little Haiti now, another sign of the changing neighborhood.

Little Haiti’s days may be numbered, but the Haitian American community has long since established a strong presence in several other neighborhoods and cities in South Florida. Sorelle is philosophical about the changes, saying: “These are just buildings after all. But I think what concerns me is that it’s a disrespect of what the Haitian community has given. And the minute it's economically viable, there’s no use for these people anymore.”

Sorelle’s film, Mountains , opened in Miami and is playing at independent theaters this month and next in Florida and other areas around the country.

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