The Haitian Revolution was a successful insurrection by self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue, now the sovereign state of Haiti, initiated by a slave revolt on this day in 1791.
Although the rebellion began in 1791, Haiti didn't achieve formally achieve independence from France until 1804. The Haitian Revolution was the only slave uprising that led to the founding of a state which was both free from slavery and ruled by its non-white former captives.
The revolt began when thousands of slaves began to kill their masters and plunged the colony into civil war after a well-attended vodou ceremony. Within the next ten days, slaves had taken control of the entire Northern Province in a slave revolt of unprecedented scale.
The slaves sought revenge on their masters through "pillage, rape, torture, mutilation, and death". Over 200,000 black people died from the initial uprising until independence thirteen years later.
Toussaint Louverture was a notable military leader of the revolution, but died shortly before independence was won. His former lieutenant, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, became the first leader of the newly independent nation in 1804.
"Of men who had cowered trembling before the frown of any white ruffian, [Toussaint Louverture] had made in ten years an army which could hold its own with the finest soldiers Europe has yet seen."
- C.L.R. James, in "The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution"
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Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):
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holy hell, Lydia
The 1804 Documentary is a much watch. Never seen anything like it before