The Late 1700s: The Haitian Revolution

The Haitian Revolution was the most significant revolution of the late 1700s. It is often described as the largest and most successful slave rebellion. It started in 1791, and by 1803 the revolutionaries succeeded in ending slavery and French control over the colony. Interestingly, the Haitian Revolution was a lot of complex revolutions going on continuously, and it was influenced by the French Revolution of 1789. In the 18th century, Saint Domingue, Haiti's former name, became France’s most successful overseas colony because of its production of sugar, coffee, indigo, and cotton. It was most successful because of the enforced labor forces. Black resistance had existed for years, but in the late 1800 centuries slave resistance began to take

The Haitians were successful in defeating the French, British and Spanish. They also ended slavery and Haiti became an independent republic. However, they were economically crippled for centuries. American President Thomas Jefferson refused to establish relations with Haiti and banned trade with Haiti to ensure the economic failure of the new republic. France and the United States shunned them and didn’t recognize them after the revolution. In fact, the United States did not recognize Haiti until 1862. They eventually were recognized when they were forced to pay an excessive 150 million gold franc in reparations to France for the revolt and secession. The huge sum of money was paid to end the country’s economic isolation and to re-establish trade with its neighbors, but the debt crippled Haiti’s economy so much that it never really recovered. However, this still proves that the Haitian revolution is significant. After successfully defeating their enemies in battle, the Haitians had to struggle to establish a nation. The rest of the world still made them struggle by stopping trade and making them pay a huge debt. This crippled their economy. If Spain, France, America had not banned trade with them, they would have had a better chance of creating a stable nation. Since their economy was ruined, they have had a lot of

Before the revolution, the whites were on top of the social class, being the wealthiest and the ones who owned the slaves. In the middle class were the free Mulattoes who were of black and white descent. They had a degree of freedom and some of them owned slaves, but they were suppressed by the conservative white power structure that only recognized them as people of color. At the bottom were the slaves who suffered the harshest treatment in the Caribbean. They had to work in the plantations and were considered property. After the revolution, the white people were gone so the social class was destroyed and of course, changed. This shows that the Haitians really earned their freedom and were not enslaved