G08: Revolution: Haitian

Haiti became an independent country after a series of conflicts known as the Haitian Revolution. The conflicts took place between 1791 and 1804. At the time Haiti was ruled by France as a colony. The vast majority of the colony’s people were Black Africans who were enslaved by the French. They were forced to work under brutal conditions on plantations growing sugarcane or other crops or in sugar mills. Eventually, after a series of struggles, an army led by people who had formerly been enslaved overthrew the French. Haiti became the first country to be founded by former slaves.

The Haitian Revolution has often been described as the largest and most successful slave rebellion in the Western Hemisphere. Slaves initiated the rebellion in 1791 and by 1803 they had succeeded in ending not just slavery but French control over the colony.

The Haitian Revolution created the second independent country in the Americas after the United States became independent in 1783. U.S. political leaders, many of them slaveowners, reacted to the emergence of Haiti as a state borne out of a slave revolt with ambivalence, at times providing aid to put down the revolt, and, later in the revolution, providing support to Toussaint L’Ouverture’s forces. Due to these shifts in policy and domestic concerns, the United States would not officially recognize Haitian independence until 1862.