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1. French Revolution
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French Revolution |
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Haitian Revolution, uprising in 1791 by black slaves on the Caribbean island of Saint Domingue. It began as a rebellion against slavery and French plantation owners, but became a political revolution that lasted for 13 years and resulted in independence from France. By 1804 the revolution had destroyed the dominant white population, the plantation system, and the institution of slavery in the most prosperous colony of the western hemisphere. ... Seeking support to defeat the white elite, French revolutionary officials abolished slavery in the colony. The struggle between the various groups continued, while Great Britain and Spain both sent invasion forces, hoping to take over the French colony. Strong leader emerged from this revolution leading the slaves to freedom. Toussaint Louverture, a former slave, took part in the slave revolt and, with other black rebel leaders such as Dessalines and Christophe, joined forces with the Spanish army against the French. ... Promoted to general in 1795 by French colonial officials, he helped drive out the Spanish. A bloody, thirteen-year revolution ensued, a complex web of wars among and between slaves, whites, free people of color, France, Spain and Britain that would eventually create the first independent black nation in the Western world. ... Toussaint LOuverture, the leader of the Saint Domingue rebellion, abandoned his Spanish allies, joined the forces of the French Republic as a brigadier general, and turned his troops against Spain. In 1797 Toussaint was made commander-in-chief of the island by the French Convention. ... Domingue was still technically a French colony, but was acting as an independent state. ... Toussaint was a literate black slave, who led the blacks in the French revolution using guerilla war fare tactics to gain independence of Saint Domingue. Dessalines aided Toussaint in the revolution and replaced him becoming the second governor of Saint Domingue renaming it Haiti. ... Leger Felicitie Sonthonax Leger Felicitie Sonthonax was the son of a prosperous French merchant and a born-again Revolutionary. ... Sonthonax’s main objectives for the commission were to enforce the new French law of April 4, 1792 which allowed full citizenship of free coloureds and to protect Saint Domingue for French interests. ... He freed the slaves under his jurisdiction in an attempt to protect the colony which was probably the most radical step of the Haitian Revolution. ... He later acquired the name Toussaint L’Ouverture (the opener) identifying with the predicted figure of the book by French anti-slavery campaigner the Abbe Raynal published in 1781. ... Though he was patriotic to France he was devoted to the cause of his own people and advocated it in his talks with French commissioners. As the revolution entered the phase of war against Britain and Spain the king of France offered freedom to slaves but the racist colonial assembly rejected this offer, and France declared war on both Britain and Spain in January and March 1793 respectively. ... He caused the French, Spanish and English to realize that the slaves were the key to gaining Haiti, and, in the end, he allied his forces with the French Haiti remained part of France under his consulship. The aim of the British government was to destroy French colonial wealth which led Prime Minister William Pitt to support legislature ending the slave trade. |
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Title: French Revolution
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