On this day in 1791 a massive slave rebellion began in Haiti which eventually led to the end of slavery in the country and the establishment of the first free Black republic in 1804. It had a significant impact on the end of the transatlantic slave trade.
European colonial slavery in Haiti, then known as Hispaniola started shortly after the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492. A Spanish colony was established on the island and by 1514 92% of the native population had died from enslavement and European diseases.
In 1519 African slaves and Native Americans joined forces to launch a three-year revolt against slavery. Spanish missionary Bartolomé de las Casas spoke out about the brutality of the Spanish and this led to the end of the enslavement of the native Taíno people.
In 1697 the Spanish ceded control of Hispaniola to the French who renamed it Saint-Domingue. They established the richest colony in the world based on coffee and sugarcane. Like the Spanish, they imported slaves from Africa, and by 1789 there were almost half a million slaves.
Conditions for slaves were brutal with many dying within a few years of enslavement with sugar plantations having a 6-10% mortality rate. Enslaved Africans who escaped were known as Marrons and they sometimes returned to plantations to free friends and family members.
On 21 August 1791 thousands of slaves revolted as they began to kill their masters as the colony descended into civil war. Many slave owners were killed and French children had their heads placed on pikes. By October 4,000 whites were dead and hundreds of plantations were destroyed.
After two years of fighting the French eventually declared the abolition of slavery across the colony in October 1793 and proclaimed that all previously enslaved people were French citizens. However, Haitians faced attacks from British and Spanish colonists.
In 1799 Napoleon seized power in France and in 1801 he invaded Saint-Domingue in order to restore slavery. Following years of brutal fighting and 50,000 French dead attempts to reintroduce slavery were defeated. On 1 January 1804, the new free republic of Haiti was declared.
However the French slave owners never forgive the Haitians and 27,000 compensation claims were launched. As a result, the Haitian government was essentially bankrupt while the French practiced a form of economic slavery. Haiti only paid off these debts in 1947.
#BlackHistory #AntiColonialism #HaitiRevolution
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