Non stop terror struck the Island of Saint Domingue when the Haitian Slaves revolted against the powerful French empire led by Napoleon. Napoleon, the ruler of France at the time, decided he wanted to take control of the Louisiana purchase and in order to do this, he had to take control of the western indies’ economic sector, Saint Domingue or modern day Haiti. In the beginning, the French invaded Saint Domingue and Toussaint Louverture, an early leader of the Haitians, fought against them for three months until they gradually lost soldiers which resulted in the surrender of the blacks. Louverture was sent to prison a few years later and died in his cell. When the news of Louverture's death arrived the ports of Saint Domingue, a new leader, Jean Jacques Dessaline, rose. Napoleon has just reintroduced slavery to Saint Domingue but the former slaves were furious with Napoleon. In response to Napoleon’s decisions, the former slaves revolted by ruthlessly killing thousands of French, burning down plantations and used Guerilla warfare led by Jean Jacques Dessaline. The French surrendered and Napoleon gave up his dreams of conquering North America. Dessaline renamed Saint Domingue to the Republic of Haiti and declared Independence.
