Call To Freedom: The Haitian Revolution

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Call to Freedom It is important to note that not every plantation experienced a rebellion. This can be partially attributed to the success of paternalism, but this was not always successful in creating a harmonious relationship between the master and his slaves. Nevertheless, slave revolts still presented a prominent threat in the south, and more or less played a large impact on southern identity. It is here that we examine the first major slave revolt to truly impact the south: the Haitian Revolution. The Haitian Revolution, while not in the United States, was waged from 1791-1804 on the island of Hispaniola and is one of the only successful mass slave revolts in history. The mere success of the revolt makes its focus on southern history that much more important to understanding the impact of slave revolts, as most slave revolts in the United States prior to the Civil War were in fact successfully subjugated. Possession of the island of Hispaniola was originally in the hands of the Spanish Empire following the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492. Under Spanish rule, the island became prosperous in sugar plantations as well as becoming rife with feral pigs, cattle and other domesticated animals. It was under the Spanish that the island became a boon for pirates; specifically French pirates who began to encroach upon the western portion of the island. It was from their base on Tortuga that the French raided Spanish fleets and further encroached on Santo Domingo, until possession of the island transferred to the French following a brief war that saw the French victorious. It was under the French that the economy of the island truly developed, the colony booming in such products as sugar, tobacco, and coffee. The problem was, however, under the Spanish Empire the local natives were critically used as chattel labor, resulting in an intense strain from working in the mines, exposure to European diseases, and Spanish brutality. This would eventually lead to the near decimation of the native Taíno population. The Spanish were soon presented a huge problem as the local Spaniards almost entirely depended on servitude. Consequentially, in order to counteract this, the Spanish encouraged the importation of slaves from Africa to be used to work the land. This, alongside the development of a robust economy, caused the development of two different social classes that became detached from each other: the white plantation owners and the mixed-race freedmen of the colony. By the late-eighteenth-century, an abolitionist movement had developed in Europe as well as within the mulatres, or free black, community on the island. It would be these two groups that would wage civil war on each other towards the end of the eighteenth-century. The Haitian Revolution can be best explained as an extension of the revolution in France. …show more content…
L’Ouverture was able to turn on his allies, the Spanish, and succeed in expelling the European invaders. This officially made him the undisputed leader of the entire island by 1801. Unfortunately, L’Ouverture’s rise to power was accompanied by the ascension of Napoleon Bonaparte back in France, who sent 21,175 elite troops, led by his brother-in-law and skilled commander, General Charles Victor Emmanuel Le Clerc, to retake the island. When Le Clerc arrived, L’Ouverture agreed to yield in return for the independence of Saint Dominique. However, following this agreement L’Ouverture was arrested and sent back to France in iron chains. This act of treachery inflamed the rebels of the colony who fought back against the French, who were weakened by disease, with a greater passion to eventually gain their independence in January 1804 as the new nation of …show more content…
Influence for the ideals behind the revolt came primarily from the French Revolution, but also from the Haitian Revolution that was taking place at the same time. Prosser planned to march on Richmond, under a flag that read “Death of Liberty,” where the group of thirty to forty slaves would seize the city’s stores of arms and force the leaders of the city to free the slaves as well as distribute money from the treasury among the rebels. It was never Gabriel’s hope to count solely on African American slaves for support; rather he was additionally expecting aid from poor whites. Ironically, it would be the African American slave who eventually caused Prosser the most

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