The Haitian Revolution, Pt. 1 ![[Documents menu]](http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/102.html/../bin/bk.gif) Documents menuThe Haitian RevolutionPart I: Prelude to the Revolution: 1760 to 1789Since this is Black History Month, and since the Haitian Revolutionis one of the wonderful stories of blackachievement, I thought I would post this story in the four essays whichI published in STRETCH magazine in 1991 as part of my honoringthe 200th anniversary of the beginning of that revolution. I do invite response. Some may well disagree with parts of my account, andothers may want to add details that I chose to leave out, others may want to ask me and others for further information. Please just drop me an e-mail and we'll go from there. Bob Corbett 2/10/1995Overview of this first essayThe shortest account which one typically hears of the Haitian Revolution is that the slaves rose up In 1791 and by 1803 had driven the whites out of Saint-Domingue, (the colonial name of HAITI) declaring the independent Republic of Haiti. It's certainly true that this happened. But the Revolution was much more complex. Actually there were several revolutions going on simultaneously, all deeply influenced by the French Revolution which commenced In Paris in 1789. In this first of four essays on The Haitian Revolution, I will do two things: Analyze the antecedents of the revolution and clarify some of the complex and shifting positions of the various interest groups which participated in it. Follow the earliest days of three revolutionary movements: A. The planters' move toward independence. B. The people of color's revolution for full citizenship. C. The slave uprising of 1791. PART I: PRELUDE TO THE REVOLUTION: 1760 to 1789The colony of San Domingue, geographically roughly the sameland mass that is today Haiti, was the richest colony in the WestIndies and probably the richest colony in the history of the world. Driven by slave labor and enabled by fertile soil and ideal climate,San Domingue produced sugar, coffee, cocoa, indigo, tobacco, cotton,sisal as well as some fruits and vegetables for the motherland, France.When the French Revolution broke out in 1789, there were fourdistinct sets of interest groups in San Domingue, with distinct sets ofinterests and even some important distinctions within these manycategories: THE WHITESThere were approximately 20,000 whites,mainly French, in San Domingue. They were divided into two main groups:PlantersThese were wealthy whites who owned plantations andmany slaves. Since their wealth and position rested entirely on theslave economy they were united in support of slavery. They were, by1770, extremely disenchanted with France. Their complaint was almostidentical with the complaints that led the North American British torebel against King George in 1776 and declare their independence. Thatis, the metropole (France), imposed strict laws on the colonyprohibiting any trading with any partner except France. Further, thecolonists had no formal representation with the French government. Virtually all the planters violated the laws of France andcarried on an illegal trade especially with the fledgling nation, theUnited States of America. Most of the planters leaned strongly towardindependence for San Domingue along the same lines as the U.S., thatis, a slave nation governed by white males. It is important to note at the outset that this group wasrevolutionary, independence-minded and defiant of the laws of France.Petit blancsThe second group of whites were less powerful thanthe planters. They were artisans, shop keepers, merchants, teachersand various middle and underclass whites. They often had a few slaves,but were not wealthy like the planters. They tended to be less independence-minded and more loyal toFrance. However, they were committed to slavery and wereespecially anti-black, seeing free persons of color as serious economicand social competitors.THE FREE PERSONS OF COLORThere were approximately30,000 free persons of color in 1789. About half of them weremulattoes, children of white Frenchmen and slave women. These mulattoeswere often freed by their father-masters in some sort of paternal guiltor concern. These mulatto children were usually feared by the slavessince the masters often displayed unpredictable behavior toward them,at times recognizing them as their children and demanding specialtreatment, at other times wishing to deny their existence. Thus theslaves wanted nothing to do with the mulattoes if possible. The other half of the free persons of color were black slaveswho had purchased their own freedom or been given freedom by theirmasters for various reasons. The free people of color were often quite wealthy, certainlyusually more wealthy than the petit blancs (thus accounting for thedistinct hatred of the free persons of color on the part of the petitblancs), and often even more wealthy than the planters. The free persons of color could own plantations and owned alarge portion of the slaves. They often treated their slaves poorly andalmost always wanted to draw distinct lines between themselves and theslaves. Free people of color were usually strongly pro-slavery. There were special laws which limited the behavior of the freepeople of color and they did not have rights as citizens of France.Like the planters, they tended to lean toward independence and to wishfor a free San Domingue which would be a slave nation in which theycould be free and independent citizens. As a class they certainlyregarded the slaves as much more their enemies than they did thewhites.Culturally the free people of color strove to be morewhite than the whites. They denied everything about their African andblack roots. They dressed as French and European as the law wouldallow, they were well educated in the French manner, spoke French anddenigrated the Creole language of the slaves. They were scrupulousCatholics and denounced the Voodoo religion of Africa. While thewhites treated them badly and scorned their color, they nonethelessstrove to imitate every thing white, seeing this a way of separatingthemselves from the status of the slaves whom they despised. THE BLACK SLAVESThere were some 500,000 slaves on theeve of the French Revolution. This means the slaves outnumbered thefree people by about 10-1. In general the slave system in San Dominguewas especially cruel. In the pecking order of slavery one of the mostfrightening threats to recalcitrant slaves in the rest of the Americaswas to threaten to sell them to San Domingue. Nonetheless, there wasan important division among the slaves which will account for somedivided behavior of the slaves in the early years of the revolution. Domestic slavesAbout 100,000 of the slaves weredomestics who worked as cooks, personal servants and various artisansaround the plantation manor, or in the towns. These slaves weregenerally better treated than the common field hands and tended toidentify more fully with their white and mulatto masters. As a classthey were longer in coming into the anti-slave revolution, and often,in the early years, remained loyal to their owners.Field handsThe 400,000 field hands were the slaves who had theharshest and most hopeless lives. They worked from sun up to sun down inthe difficult climate of San Domingue. They were inadequately fed, withvirtually no medical care, not allowed to learn to read or write and ingeneral were treated much worse than the work animals on theplantation. Despite French philosophical positions which admitted thehuman status of slaves (something which the Spanish, United States andBritish systems did NOT do at this time), the French slave owners foundit much easier to replace slaves by purchasing new ones than inworrying much to preserve the lives of existing slaves. THE MAROONSThere was a large group of run-away slaveswho retreated deep into the mountains of San Domingue. They lived insmall villages where they did subsistence farming and kept aliveAfrican ways, developing African architecture, social relations,religion and customs. They were bitterly anti-slavery, but alone, werenot willing to fight the fight for freedom. They did supplement theirsubsistence farming with occasional raids on local plantations, andmaintained defense systems to resist planter forays to capture andreenslave them. It is hard to estimate their numbers, but most scholars believethere were tens of thousands of them prior to the Revolution of 1791. Actually two of the leading generals of the early slave revolution weremaroons.PRE-REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS AND COMPLEX ALLIANCESThe French Revolution of 1789 In France was the spark which lit the HaitianRevolution of 1791. But, prior to that spark there was a great deal ofdissatisfaction with the Metropolitan France and that dissatisfactioncreated some very strange alliances and movements. THE INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENTFrance enforced a system called theexclusif on San Domingue. This required that San Domingue sold 100%of her exports to France alone, and purchased 100% of her imports fromFrance alone. The French merchants and crown set the prices for bothimports and exports, and the prices were extraordinarily favorable toFrance and in no way competitive with world markets. It was virtuallythe same system as that which England had forced on its North Americancolonies and which finally sparked the independence movement in thesecolonies. Like the North Americans, the San Dominguans did not abidestrictly by the law. A contraband trade grew up with the British inJamaica and especially with British North America, and after itssuccessful revolution, the United States. The Americans wanted molassesfrom San Domingue for their burgeoning rum distilleries, and SanDomingue imported huge quantities of low quality dried fish to feed tothe slaves. Nonetheless, the planters (both white and free people of color)chafed under the oppression of France's exclusif. There was a growing independence movement, and in this movement the white planters were united with the free people of color. It was a curious alliance, since the whites continued to oppress the free people of color in their social life, but formed a coalition with them on the political and economicfront. The petit blancs remained mainly outside this coalition,primarily because they were not willing to form any sort of alliancewith any people of color, free or not. The petit blancs were avowedracists and were especially offended and threaten by the elevatedeconomic status of most of the free people of color. It is important to note that this independence movement did notinclude the slaves in any way whatsoever. Those who were a party to themovement were avowed slave owners and their vision of a free SanDomingue was like the United States, a slave owning nation. SLAVE REBELLIONSSimultaneously there were constantslave rebellions. The slaves never willing submitted to their statusand never quit fighting it. The slave owners, both white and people ofcolor, feared the slaves and knew that the incredible concentration ofslaves (the slaves outnumbered the free people 10-1) requiredexceptional control. This, in part, accounts for the special harshnessand cruelty of slavery in San Domingue. The owners tried to keepslaves of the same tribes apart; they forbade any meetings of slaves atall; they tied slaves rigorously to their own plantations, brutallypunished the slightest manifestation of non-cooperation and employedhuge teams of harsh overseers. Nonetheless the slaves fought back in whatever way they could.One of the few weapons the masters could not control were poisons,which grew wild In San Domingue, the knowledge of which the slavesbrought with them from Africa. The history of slavery In San Domingue,like that of slavery everywhere, is a history of constant rebellion andresistance. One of the most famous and successful revolutions prior to1791 was the Mackandal rebellion of 1759. The slave Mackandal, ahoungan knowledgeable of poisons, organized a widespread plot to poisonthe masters, their water supplies and animals. The movement spreadgreat terror among the slave owners and killed hundreds before thesecret of Mackandal was tortured from a slave. The rebellion wascrushed and Mackandal brutally put to death. But, it reflects theconstant fear in which the slave owners lived, and explains thebrutality of their system of control. The slave rebellions were without allies among either the whitesor free people of color. They were not even fully united amongthemselves, and the domestic slaves especially tended to be more loyalto their masters. The maroons, in the meantime, were in contact with rebelliousslaves, but they had few firm alliances. Nonetheless, their hatred ofslavery, their fear of being re-enslaved and their desire to be freeand safe in their own country, made them ready allies were a seriousslave revolution to begin. THE EARLIEST PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION 1789-1791The Revolution in France, 1789. . .It is necessary to remind thereaders briefly of what was going on in France at this time. Prior tothe storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, France was ruled by aking. King Louis XVI and his queen Marie Antoinette were only two in along line of greedy monarches who cared little about their people. Nonetheless, a movement for a general concept of human rights,universal citizenship and participation in government had developedamong the intellectuals and was taking root among the common people. This movement finally broke into full revolution in 1789 and ordinarycitizens, for the first time in France's history, had the rights ofcitizenship. People in France were divided into two camps, the red cockades,those in favor of the revolution and the white cockades, those loyal tothe system of monarchy. (This had to do with the color of the hats theywore.) This whole social upheaval had a necessary impact on SanDomingue, and people had to begin to choose up sides. In France the tendency was to be a revolutionary or amonarchist, and to remain fairly strongly within that camp. In SanDomingue, however, things were much more fluid. Not only were all theissues which plagued France being played out, but the additional issuesof the independence movement, the movement toward rights for freepeople of color and the question of slavery. This caused San Dominguansto shift from the side of the revolution to the side of monarchy andvice versa with blinding suddenness, and makes following the line-up ofwhose on whose side very difficult. It always depends on WHEN in therevolution you are speaking. THE FREE PERSONS OF COLORThe revolution progressedquickly in France, and on August 26, 1789 the newly convened EstatesGeneral (a general parliament of the people) passed the Declaration ofthe Rights of Man and Citizen. This declaration immediately raised thequestion of slavery. The Aimis des Noirs (Friend of the Blacks). In 1787 ananti-slavery society was founded in France. it was modelled after theanti-slavery society of England and influenced by Thomas Clarkson. They also had strong contacts with American abolitionists. They wantedthe gradual elimination of slavery, yet they wanted the retention ofFrance's prosperous West Indian colonies. After the declaration ofrights, they were forced to make important decisions on where theystood. Rather than address the question of slavery, they decided tofollow their gradualist position and to address the question of freepersons of color. There was a strong case to make for this group. The slaves wereproperly and thus the question of their humanity could be put on theback burner. Human Rights were something for white French males, notfor blacks or property-less French men or any women. However, the freepersons of color were a different matter all together. Not only werethey not prop- erty, but were themselves property owners and tax payers.The Amis des Noirs decided that this would be the place to begin theirbattle, not with the question of the abolition of slavery itself. On March 28, 1790 the General Assembly in Paris passed anambiguous piece of legislation. While the various colonies were givena relatively free hand in local government, an amendment required thatall the proprietors... ought to be active citizens. The amendment wasboth too much and not enough. It seemed to possibly exclude the petitblancs, thus increasing their anger against the free persons of color,and, on the other hand, it seemed to argue for citizenship for freepersons of color who were property owners—which was most of them. Back in San Domingue there were two separate issues, eachdemanding different and contradictory alliances. It was theseconflicting demands on peoples' loyalties which caused much of theshifting about in these early years. On the one hand the petit blancsand the white planters formed an uneasy union against the Frenchbureaucrats. The issue was independence and local control. Thebureaucrats were seen as strongly pro-French. Thus the battle lineswere draw on the basis of loyalty to the new revolution in France. Allthe whites of San Domingue began to sport the red cockade of therevolution, and the French bureaucrats were painted with the whitecockade of French monarchy.However, this was an uneasy alliance.The white planters were not revolutionaries in the French sense at all.Nor did they want full rights for the petit blancs. It was a doomedalliance and didn't last long. On the other hard, the natural allies of the white planter'swere the free people of color. Both were from the wealthy class, bothsupported independence and slavery and neither wanted to change thetraditional control of society by wealthy propertied people. The changewould have been to allow the wealthy free persons of color their sharein power, wealth and social prestige in this union. This was extremelydifficult for the white planters to do until it was too late. Some saw this necessity, but couldn't convince the others. Onewhite planter argued: Win over the gens de couleur class to yourcause. They surely could not ask for more than conforming theirinterests with yours, and of employing themselves with the zeal forcommon security. It is therefore only a question of being just to themand of treating them better and better. But, of course, this advicewent unheeded and the coalitions all broke down in due course. The immediate result of the General Assembly meeting was for SanDomingue to bring the white population to the brink of a three-sidedcivil war. The petit blancs formed a Colonial Assembly at St. Marc forhome rule. The white planters saw this was totally against theirinterests, thus they withdrew and formed their own assembly at CapeFrancois (today Cape Haitien). At the same time this split between thetwo colonial white groups gave strength to the French governmentofficials who had lost effective control of the colony. Each of thethree forces were poised to strike against the other. Yet, in thecrazy contradictions of this whole situation, the petit blancs andwhite planters each carried on their own private war of terror againstthe free people of color. Rich San Domingue mulatto, Vincent Oge had been in Paris duringthe debates of March, 1790. He had tried to be seated as a delegatefrom San Domingue and was rebuffed. He and other San Dominguan men ofcolor had tried to get the General Assembly to specify that theprovision for citizenship included the free persons of color. Havingfailed in all of that, Oge resolved to return to San Domingue and oneway or the other, by power of persuasion or power of arms, to force theissue of citizenship for free persons of color. Oge visited the famous anti-slavery advocate Thomas Clarkson inEngland, then went to the United States to meet with leadingabolitionists and to purchase arms and munitions. He returned to SanDomingue and began to pursue his cause. Upon seeing that there was nohope to persuade the whites to allow their citizenship, Oge formed amilitary band with Jean-Baptist Chavannes. They set up headquarters inGrand Riviere, just east of Cape Francois and prepared to march on thestronghold of the colonists. It is important to note that Ogeconsciously rejected the help of black slaves. He wanted no part ofany alliance with the slaves, and regarded them in the same way thewhites did -- a property. THE DEATHS OF OGE AND CHAVANNESIn early November Ogeand Chavannes' forces were badly beaten, many of their tiny band of 300captured while Oge and Chavannes escaped into Santo Domingo, theSpanish part of the island. The Spanish happily arrested the two andturned them over to the whites in Cape Francois. On March 9, 1791 thecaptured soldiers were hanged and Oge and Chavannes tortured to deathin the public square, being put on the rack and their bodies splitapart. The whites intended to send a strong message to any people ofcolor who would dare to fight back. Thus ended the first mini-war in the Haitian Revolution. It hadnothing to do with freeing the slaves and didn't involve the slaves inany way at all. Yet the divisions among slave owners, the divisionsamong the whites, the divisions among colonial French and metropolitanFrench, the divisions among whites and free persons of color, all setthe stage to make possible a more successful slave rebellion than hadpreviously been possible.THE SLAVE REBELLION OF AUGUST 21, 1791Typically historians date the beginnings of the HaitianRevolution with the uprising of the slaves on the night of August 21st.While I've given reasons above to suspect that the revolution wasalready under way, the entry of the slaves into the struggle iscertainly an historic event. And the event is so colorful that noteven Hollywood would have to improve upon history.BOUKMAN AND THE VOODOO SERVICEFor several years theslaves had been deserting their plantations with increasing frequency. The numbers of maroons had swollen dramatically and all that was neededwas some spark to ignite the pent up frustration, hatred and impulsetoward independence. This event was a Petwo Voodoo service. On the evening of August14th Dutty Boukman, a houngan and practitioner of the Petwo Voodoocult, held a service at Bois Caiman. A woman at the service waspossessed by Ogoun, the Voodoo warrior spirit. She sacrificed a blackpig, and speaking the voice of the spirit, named those who were to leadthe slaves and maroons to revolt and seek a stark justice from theirwhite oppressors. (Ironically, it was the whites and not the people ofcolor who were the targets of the revolution, even though the people ofcolor were often very harsh slave owners.) The woman named Boukman, Jean-Francois, Biassou and Jeannot asthe leaders of the uprising. It was some time later before Toussaint,Henry Christophe, Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Andre Rigaud took theirplaces as the leading generals who brought The Haitian Revolution toits final triumph. Word spread rapidly of this historic and prophetic religiousservice and the maroons and slaves readied themselves for a majorassault on the whites. This uprising which would not ever be turnedback, began on the evening of August 21st. The whole northern plainsurrounding Cape Francois was in flames. Plantation owners weremurdered, their women raped and killed, children slaughtered and theirbodies mounted on poles to lead the slaves. It was an incrediblysavage outburst, yet it still fell short of the treatment the slaveshad received, and would still continue to receive, from the whiteplanters. The once rich colony was in smouldering ruins. More than athousand whites had been killed. Slaves and maroons across the landwere hurrying to the banner of the revolution. The masses of northernslaves laid siege to Cape Francois itself. In the south and west the rebellion took on a different flavor.In Mirebalais there was a union of people of color and slaves, and theywere menacing the whole region. A contingent of white soldiers marchedout of Port-au-Prince, but were soundly defeated. Then therevolutionaries marched on Port-au-Prince. However, the free people ofcolor did not want to defeat the whites, they wanted to join them. And,more importantly, they didn't want to see the slaves succeed and pushfor emancipation. Consequently, they offered a deal to the whites and joined forces with them, turning treacherously on their black comrades in arms. This was a signal to the whites in Cape Francois of how tohandle their difficult and deteriorating situation. On September 20,1791 the Colonial Assembly recognized the Paris decree of May, and theyeven took it a step further. They recognized the citizenship of allfree people of color, regardless of their property and birth status.Thus the battle lines were drawn with all the free people, regardlessof color, on the one side, and the black slaves and maroons on theother. Meanwhile, in France word of the uprising caused the GeneralAssembly to rethink its position. The Assembly thought it had gone toofar with the May Decree and had endangered the colonial status of SanDomingue. Consequently on September 23rd the May Decree was revoked.Then the Assembly named three commissioners to go to San Domingue with18,000 soldiers and restore order, slavery and French control. When the commissioners arrived In December, 1791, their positionwas considerably weaker than the General Assembly had suggested.Instead of 18,000 troops they had 6,000. In the meantime the whites inthe south and west had attempted to revoke the rights of free people ofcolor, and broken the alliance. Not only did the free people of colorbreak with the whites and set up their own struggle centered inCroix-des-Bouquets, but many whites, particularly the planters, joinedthem. Thus thus south and west were divided into three factions, andthe whites in Port-au-Prince were in a most weakened position. In Cape Francois the Colonial Assembly did not move against thefree people of color, but the slaves intensified their struggle and thewhites were virtual prisoners in the town of Cape Francois. Most ofthe northern plain was in ruins. Back in France it became apparent that the First CivilCommission with its 6,000 troops could not bring peace back to SanDomingue. When the authorities in France debated the issue it wasclear to them that the problem was to bring unity between the freepeople of color and the whites against the rebelling slaves. Thus onceagain Paris reversed itself and with the historic and landmark Decreeof April, 4, 1792, the free people of color were finally given fullcitizenship with the whites. The Assembly in Paris prepared a Second Civil Commission to goto San Domingue and enforce the April 4th decree. This commissioncontained Felicite Leger Sonthonax, a man who was to figure importantlyin the future of The Haitian Revolution. |
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