1804 Haiti massacre

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1804 Haiti massacre
Part of the aftermath of the Haitian Revolution
Manuel Lopez Lopez - Fue muerta y destroiada nel campo esta infelir p. haver resistido alos deseos brutales de los negros y el nino pererio de hambre asulado buscando el becho yerto desu madre.jpg
Engraving depicting a killing during the massacre
Location First Empire of Haiti
DateFebruary 1804 (1804-02) 22 April 1804;218 years ago (1804-04-22)
Target White people (predominantly French people), mulattoes
Deaths3,000–5,000
PerpetratorsArmy of Jean-Jacques Dessalines
Motive Anti-French sentiment, ethnic cleansing, political extremism, racism, class conflict, revenge for slavery [1]

The 1804 Haiti massacre also known as the 1804 Haitian Genocide [1] [2] or simply the Haitian Genocide [1] [3] was carried out by Afro-Haitian soldiers, mostly former slaves, under orders from Jean-Jacques Dessalines against the remaining European population in Haiti, which mainly included French people and mulattoes. [4] [5] The Haitian Revolution defeated the French army in November 1803 and the Haitian Declaration of Independence happened on January 1st 1804. [6] From February 1804 [7] until 22 April 1804, squads of soldiers moved from house to house throughout Haiti, torturing and killing entire families. [8] Between 3,000 and 5,000 people were killed. [7]

Contents

Nicholas A. Robins, Adam Jones and A. Dirk Moses theorize that the executions were a "genocide of the subaltern", in which an oppressed group uses genocidal means to destroy its oppressors. [9] [10] Philippe Girard has suggested the threat of reinvasion and reinstatement of slavery as some of the reasons for the massacre. [11]

Throughout the early-to-mid nineteenth century, the events of the massacre were well known in the United States. Additionally, many Saint Dominican refugees moved from Saint-Domingue to the U.S., settling in New Orleans, Charleston, New York, Baltimore and other coastal cities. These events spurred fears of potential uprisings in the Southern U.S. and they also polarized public opinion on the question of the abolition of slavery. [12] [13]

Background

Slavery

Henri Christophe's personal secretary, [14] [ unreliable source? ] who was a slave for much of his life, attempted to explain the incident by referencing the cruel treatment of black slaves by white slaveholders in Saint-Domingue:

Have they not hung up men with heads downward, drowned them in sacks, crucified them on planks, buried them alive, crushed them in mortars? Have they not forced them to consume faeces? And, having flayed them with the lash, have they not cast them alive to be devoured by worms, or onto anthills, or lashed them to stakes in the swamp to be devoured by mosquitoes? Have they not thrown them into boiling cauldrons of cane syrup? Have they not put men and women inside barrels studded with spikes and rolled them down mountainsides into the abyss? Have they not consigned these miserable blacks to man eating-dogs until the latter, sated by human flesh, left the mangled victims to be finished off with bayonet and poniard? [15]

Haitian Revolution

"Burning of the Plaine du Cap - Massacre of whites by the blacks." On August 22, 1791, slaves set fire to plantations, torched cities and massacred the white population. Incendie de la Plaine du Cap. - Massacre des Blancs par les Noirs. FRANCE MILITAIRE. - Martinet del. - Masson Sculp - 33.jpg
"Burning of the Plaine du Cap - Massacre of whites by the blacks." On August 22, 1791, slaves set fire to plantations, torched cities and massacred the white population.

In 1791, a man of Jamaican origin named Dutty Boukman became the leader of the enslaved Africans held on a large plantation in Cap-Français. [16] In the wake of the French Revolution, he planned to massacre all the French living in Cap-Français. [16] On 22 August 1791, the enslaved Africans descended on Le Cap, where they destroyed the plantations and executed all the French who lived in the region. [16] King Louis XVI was accused of indifference to the massacre, while the slaves seemed to think the king was on their side. [17] In July 1793, the French in Les Cayes were massacred. [18]

Despite the French proclamation of emancipation, the blacks sided with the Spanish who came to occupy the region. [19] In July 1794, Spanish forces stood by while the black troops of Jean-François massacred the French whites in Fort-Dauphin. [19]

Philippe Girard writes that genocide was openly considered as a strategy by both sides in the conflict. [20] White forces sent by Napoleon Bonaparte committed massacres but were defeated before they could accomplish genocide, while an army under Jean-Jacques Dessalines, composed mainly of former slaves, was able to wipe out the white Haitian population. [20] Girard describes five main factors leading to the massacre, which he describes as a genocide: (1) Haitian soldiers were influenced by the French Revolution to justify murder and large-scale massacres on ideological grounds; (2) economic interests motivated French planters to want to quell the uprising, as well as influencing former slaves to want to kill the planters and take ownership of the plantations; (3) a slave revolt had been ongoing for more than a decade, and was itself a reaction to a century of brutal colonial rule, making violent death commonplace and therefore easier to accept; (4) the massacre was a form of class warfare in which former slaves were able to take revenge against their former masters; and (5) the last stages of the war became a racial conflict pitting Whites against Blacks and Mulattoes, in which racial hatred, dehumanization, and conspiracy theories all facilitated genocide. [20]

Dessalines came to power after France's defeat and subsequent evacuation from what was previously known as Saint-Domingue. In November 1803, three days after Rochambeau's forces surrendered, Dessalines ordered the execution of 800 French soldiers who had been left behind due to illness during the evacuation. [21] [22] He did guarantee the safety of the remaining white civilian population. [23] [ page needed ] [24] However, Jeremy Popkin writes that statements by Dessalines such as "There are still French on the island, and still you considered yourselves free," spoke of a hostile attitude toward the remaining white minority. [21]

Rumors about the white population suggested that they would try to leave the country to convince foreign powers to invade and reintroduce slavery. Discussions between Dessalines and his advisers openly suggested that the white population should be put to death for the sake of national security. Whites trying to leave Haiti were prevented from doing so. [22]

On January 1st 1804, Dessalines proclaimed Haiti an independent nation. [25] Mid-february, Dessalines told some cities (Léogâne, Jacmel, Les Cayes) to prepare for mass massacres. [22] On february 22nd 1804, he signed a decree ordering that all whites in all cities should be put to death. [26] The weapons used should be silent weapons such as knives and bayonets rather than gunfire, so that the killing could be done more quietly, and avoid warning intended victims by the sound of gunfire and thereby giving them the opportunity to escape. [27]

Massacre

An 1806 engraving of Jean-Jacques Dessalines. It depicts the general, sword raised in one arm, while the other holds the severed head of a white woman. Manuel Lopez Lopez Iodibo - Desalines - Huyes del valor frances, pero matando blancos.jpg
An 1806 engraving of Jean-Jacques Dessalines. It depicts the general, sword raised in one arm, while the other holds the severed head of a white woman.

During February and March, Dessalines traveled among the cities of Haiti to assure himself that his orders were carried out. Despite his orders, the massacres were often not carried out until he visited the cities in person. [21]

The course of the massacre showed an almost identical pattern in every city he visited. Before his arrival, there were only a few killings, despite his orders. [28] When Dessalines arrived, he first spoke about the atrocities committed by former white authorities, such as Rochambeau and Leclerc, after which he demanded that his orders about mass killings of the area's white population should be put into effect. Reportedly, he ordered the unwilling to take part in the killings, especially men of mixed race, so that the blame should not be placed solely on the black population. [29] [30] Mass killings took place on the streets and on places outside the cities.

In parallel to the killings, plundering and rape also occurred. [30] Women and children were generally killed last. White women were "often raped or pushed into forced marriages under threat of death." [30]

Dessalines did not specifically mention that the white women should be killed, and the soldiers were reportedly somewhat hesitant to do so. In the end, however, the women were also put to death, though normally at a later stage of the massacre than the adult males. [28] The argument for killing the women was that whites would not truly be eradicated if the white women were spared to give birth to new Frenchmen. [31]

Before his departure from a city, Dessalines would proclaim an amnesty for all the whites who had survived in hiding during the massacre. When these people left their hiding place however, most (French) were killed as well. [30] Many[ quantify ]whites were, however, hidden and smuggled out to sea by foreigners. [30] However, there were notable exceptions to the ordered killings. A contingent of Polish defectors were given amnesty and granted Haitian citizenship for their renouncement of French allegiance and support of Haitian independence. Dessalines referred to the Poles as "the White Negroes of Europe", as an expression of his solidarity and gratitude. [32]

The French, who were one of the two main targets of the 1804 Haiti Massacre that Dessalines and his company specifically declared a massacre on [33] made up the overwhelming majority of the white population. Dessalines’ secretary Louis Boisrond-Tonnerre complained that the declaration of independence was not aggressive enough, saying that ‘...we should use the skin of a white man as parchment, his skill as an inkwell, his blood for ink, and a bayonet for a pen', [34] a hyperbole to express the current sentiment of whites at the time. Dessalines later himself specifically pledged to “kill every Frenchman who soils the land of freedom with his sacrilegious presence." [35]

The people chosen to be killed were solely targeted based on skin colour rather than political association with the French or nationality. [36] Despite choosing solely on skin colour, the white victims were almost entirely French, who were one of the two main targets of the 1804 Haiti Massacre that Dessalines and his company specifically declared a massacre on [33] as virtually the entire white population composed of French people. Under Dessalines’ instruction, mulattoes were also targets along with whites. [37] [38] It was said that he ordered every white and mulatto to the square in front of the Government House and kill them all at once. [39] Mulattoes often times were more French aligned, having more rights than the African slaves in addition to owning property and sometimes even being educated in Europe. During this time as well, a civil war broke out between blacks and mulattoes [40] which caused Dessalines to order a massacre of mulattoes amidst the ethnic cleansing of the French. [41] This was met with some contention however. When accused of being the one who orchestrated this massacre, Toussaint said “I told Dessalines to prune the tree; not to uproot it. [42] About his targets of the massacre, Dessalines’ slogan exemplified his mission to eradicate the white and mulatto population with the saying “Break the eggs, take out the [sic] yoke [a pun on the word ‘yellow’ which means both yoke and mulatto] and eat the white.' [43] Upper class whites and mulattoes were not the only target; any white and mulatto of any socioeconomic status was also to be killed, including the urban poor known as petits blancs. [44] During the massacre, stabbing, beheading, and disemboweling were common. [45]

In Port-au-Prince, only a few killings had occurred in the city despite the orders. After Dessalines arrived on 18 March, the number of killings escalated. According to a merchant captain, about 800 people were killed in the city, while about 50 survived. [30] On 18 April 1804, Dessalines arrived at Cap-Haïtien. Only a handful of killings had taken place there before his arrival, but the killings escalated to a massacre on the streets and outside the city after his arrival. [30]

As elsewhere, the majority of the women were initially not killed. Dessalines's advisers, however, pointed out that the white Haitians would not disappear if the women were left to give birth to white men, and after this, Dessalines ordered that the women should be killed as well, with the exception of those who agreed to marry non-white men. [28] Sources created at the time stated that 3,000 people were killed in Cap-Haïtien; Philippe Girard writes that this figure was unrealistic as in the post-evacuation of the French people the settlement had only 1,700 white people. [30]

One of the most notorious of the massacre participants was Jean Zombi, a mulatto resident of Port-au-Prince who was known for his brutality. One account describes how Zombi stopped a white man on the street, stripped him naked, and took him to the stair of the Presidential Palace, where he killed him with a dagger. Dessalines was reportedly among the spectators; he was said to be "horrified" by the episode. [46] In Haitian Vodou tradition, the figure of Jean Zombi has become a prototype for the zombie. [47] [ contradictory ]

At the conclusion of the slaughter, Dessalines rejoiced, saying "I will go to my grave happy. We have avenged our brothers. Haiti has become a blood-red spot on the face of the globe!" [48]

Aftermath

Effects in Haiti

By the end of April 1804, some 3,000 to 5,000 people had been killed [31] and the white Haitians were practically eradicated, excluding a select group of whites who were given amnesty. Those spared consisted of the Polish ex-soldiers who were given Haitian citizenship for helping black Haitians in fights against white colonialists; a small group of German colonists invited to the north-west region before the revolution; and a group of medical doctors and professionals. [21] Reportedly, also people with connections to officers in the Haitian army were spared, as well as the women who agreed to marry non-white men. [31]

Dessalines did not try to hide the massacre from the world. In an official proclamation of 8 April 1804, he stated, "We have given these true cannibals war for war, crime for crime, outrage for outrage. Yes, I have saved my country, I have avenged America." [21] He referred to the massacre as an act of national authority. Dessalines regarded the elimination of the white Haitians an act of political necessity, as they were regarded as a threat to the peace between the black and the free people of color. It was also regarded as a necessary act of vengeance. [31] Dessalines' secretary Boisrond-Tonnerre stated, "For our declaration of independence, we should have the skin of a white man for parchment, his skull for an inkwell, his blood for ink, and a bayonet for a pen!" [49]

Dessalines was eager to assure that Haiti was not a threat to other nations. He directed efforts to establish friendly relations also to nations where slavery was still allowed. [50]

In the 1805 constitution, all citizens were defined as "black". [51] The constitution also banned white men from owning land, except for people already born or born in the future to white women who were naturalized as Haitian citizens and the Germans and Poles who got Haitian citizenship. [31] [52] The massacre had a long-lasting effect on the view of the Haitian Revolution. It helped to create a legacy of racial hostility in Haitian society. [51]

Girard writes in his book Paradise Lost: "Despite all of Dessalines' efforts at rationalization, the massacres were as inexcusable as they were foolish." [53] Trinidadian historian C. L. R. James concurred with this view in his breakthrough work The Black Jacobins , writing that "the unfortunate country... was ruined economically, its population lacking in social culture, [and] had its difficulties doubled by this massacre". James wrote that the massacre was "not policy but revenge, and revenge has no place in politics". [54]

Philippe Girard writes "when the genocide was over, Haiti's white population was virtually non-existent." [11] [ page needed ] Citing Girard, Nicholas A. Robins and Adam Jones describe the massacre as a "genocide of the subaltern" in which a previously disadvantaged group used a genocide to destroy their previous oppressors. [9]

Effect on American society

At the time of the U.S. Civil War, a major pretext for Southern whites, most of whom did not own slaves, to support slave-owners (and ultimately fight for the Confederacy) was fear of a genocide similar to the Haitian Massacre of 1804.[ citation needed ] The failed experiments in Haiti and Jamaica were explicitly referred to in Confederate discourse as a reason for secession. [55] The slave revolt was a prominent theme in the discourse of southern political leaders and had influenced U.S. public opinion since the events took place. Historian Kevin C. Julius writes:

As abolitionists loudly proclaimed that "All men are created equal", echoes of armed slave insurrections and racial genocide sounded in Southern ears. Much of their resentment towards the abolitionists can be seen as a reaction to the events in Haiti. [12]

In the run-up to the U.S. presidential election of 1860, Roger B. Taney, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, wrote "I remember the horrors of St. Domingo" and said that the election "will determine whether anything like this is to be visited upon our own southern countrymen." [13]

Abolitionists recognized the strength of this argument on public opinion in both the north and south. In correspondence to the New York Times in September 1861 (during the war), an abolitionist named J. B. Lyon addressed this as a prominent argument of his opponents:

We don't know any better than to imagine that emancipation would result in the utter extinction of civilization in the South, because the slave-holders, and those in their interest, have persistently told us ... and they always instance the 'horrors of St. Domingo.' [56]

Lyon argued, however, that the abolition of slavery in the various Caribbean colonies of the European empires before the 1860s showed that an end to slavery could be achieved peacefully.

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Girard, Philippe R. (2005). "Caribbean genocide: racial war in Haiti, 1802–4". Patterns of Prejudice. 39 (2): 138–161. doi:10.1080/00313220500106196. ISSN   0031-322X. The Haitian genocide and its historical counterparts [...] The 1804 Haitian genocide
  2. Moses, Dirk A.; Stone, Dan (2013). Colonialism and Genocide. Routledge. p. 63. ISBN   978-1-317-99753-5.
  3. Forde, James (2020). The Early Haitian State and the Question of Political Legitimacy: American and British Representations of Haiti, 1804—1824. Springer. p. 40. ISBN   978-3-030-52608-5.
  4. Rogers, J. A. (2010-07-06). World's Great Men of Color, Volume II. Simon and Schuster. ISBN   978-1-4516-0307-1.
  5. Orizio, Riccardo (2001). Lost White Tribes: The End of Privilege and the Last Colonials in Sri Lanka, Jamaica, Brazil, Haiti, Namibia, and Guadeloupe. Simon and Schuster. ISBN   978-0-7432-1197-0.
  6. Sutherland, Claudia (16 July 2007). "Haitian Revolution (1791-1804)". Blackpast.org. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
  7. 1 2 Girard (2011), pp. 319–322.
  8. Danner, Mark (2009). Stripping Bare the Body: Politics, Violence, War. New York: Nation Books. p. 107. ISBN   978-1-5685-8413-3.
  9. 1 2 Robins, Nicholas A.; Jones, Adam, eds. (2009). Genocides by the Oppressed: Subaltern Genocide in Theory and Practice. Indiana University Press. p. 3. ISBN   978-0-2532-2077-6. The Great Rebellion and the Haitian slave uprising are two examples of what we refer to as 'subaltern genocide': cases in which subaltern actors—those objectively oppressed and disempowered—adopt genocidal strategies to vanquish their oppressors.
    See also: Jones, Adam (2013). "Subaltern genocide: Genocides by the oppressed". The Scourge of Genocide: Essays and Reflections. With Nicholas Robins. Routledge. p. 169. ISBN   978-1-1350-4715-3.
  10. Klävers, Steffen (2019). Decolonizing Auschwitz?: Komparativ-postkoloniale Ansätze in der Holocaustforschung (in German). Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. p. 110. ISBN   978-3-11-060041-4.
  11. 1 2 Girard (2005a).
  12. 1 2 Julius, Kevin C. (2004). The abolitionist decade, 1829-1838 : a year-by-year history of early events in the antislavery movement. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co. ISBN   0-7864-1946-6.[ page needed ]
  13. 1 2 Marcotte, Frank B. (2005). Six days in April : Lincoln and the Union in peril. New York: Algora Publishing. p. 171. ISBN   0-8758-6313-2.
  14. "Christophe's Kingdom and Pétion's Republic". Travelinghaiti.com. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
  15. Heinl, Michael; Heinl, Robert Debs; Heinl, Nancy Gordon (2005). Written in Blood: The Story of the Haitian People, 1492–1995 (Revised ed.). Lanham, Md; London: Univ. Press of America. ISBN   0-7618-3177-0.[ page needed ]
  16. 1 2 3 Cheuse, Alan (2002). Listening to the Page: Adventures in Reading and Writing . Columbia University Press. pp. 58–59. ISBN   978-0-231-12271-9.
  17. Douthwaite, Julia V. (2012). The Frankenstein of 1790 and Other Lost Chapters from Revolutionary France. University of Chicago Press. p. 110. ISBN   978-0-226-16058-0.
  18. Geggus, David (1989). "The Haitian Revolution" . In Knight, Franklin W.; Palmer, Colin A. (eds.). The Modern Caribbean. University of North Carolina Press. p. 32. ISBN   978-0-8078-4240-9.
  19. 1 2 Popkin, Jeremy D. (2007). Facing Racial Revolution: Eyewitness Accounts of the Haitian Insurrection. University of Chicago Press. p. 252. ISBN   978-0-226-67582-4.
  20. 1 2 3 Girard (2005a), abstract.
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 Popkin (2012), p. 137.
  22. 1 2 3 Girard (2011), p. 319.
  23. Dayan (1998).
  24. Shen (2008).
  25. Dayan (1998), pp. 3–4.
  26. Blancpain 2001, p. 7.
  27. Dayan (1998), p. 4.
  28. 1 2 3 Girard (2011), pp. 321–322.
  29. Dayan (1998), p. [ page needed ].
  30. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Girard (2011), p. 321.
  31. 1 2 3 4 5 Girard (2011), p. 322.
  32. Buck-Morss, Susan (2009). Hegel, Haiti, and Universal History. University of Pittsburgh Press. pp. 75 ff. ISBN   978-0-8229-7334-8.
  33. 1 2 Girard, Philippe R. (2005-06-01). "Caribbean genocide: racial war in Haiti, 1802–4". Patterns of Prejudice. 39 (2): 138–161. doi:10.1080/00313220500106196. ISSN   0031-322X.
  34. Girard, Philippe R. (2005-06-01). "Caribbean genocide: racial war in Haiti, 1802–4". Patterns of Prejudice. 39 (2): 138–161. doi:10.1080/00313220500106196. ISSN   0031-322X.
  35. Girard, Philippe R. (2005-06-01). "Caribbean genocide: racial war in Haiti, 1802–4". Patterns of Prejudice. 39 (2): 138–161. doi:10.1080/00313220500106196. ISSN   0031-322X.
  36. Girard, Philippe R. (2005-06-01). "Caribbean genocide: racial war in Haiti, 1802–4". Patterns of Prejudice. 39 (2): 138–161. doi:10.1080/00313220500106196. ISSN   0031-322X.
  37. Girard, Philippe R. (2005-06-01). "Caribbean genocide: racial war in Haiti, 1802–4". Patterns of Prejudice. 39 (2): 138–161. doi:10.1080/00313220500106196. ISSN   0031-322X.
  38. Rogers, J. A. (2010-07-06). World's Great Men of Color, Volume II. Simon and Schuster. ISBN   978-1-4516-0307-1.
  39. Orizio, Riccardo (2001). Lost White Tribes: The End of Privilege and the Last Colonials in Sri Lanka, Jamaica, Brazil, Haiti, Namibia, and Guadeloupe. Simon and Schuster. ISBN   978-0-7432-1197-0.
  40. Rogers, J. A. (2010-07-06). World's Great Men of Color, Volume II. Simon and Schuster. ISBN   978-1-4516-0307-1.
  41. Rogers, J. A. (2010-07-06). World's Great Men of Color, Volume II. Simon and Schuster. ISBN   978-1-4516-0307-1.
  42. Rogers, J. A. (2010-07-06). World's Great Men of Color, Volume II. Simon and Schuster. ISBN   978-1-4516-0307-1.
  43. Girard, Philippe R. (2005-06-01). "Caribbean genocide: racial war in Haiti, 1802–4". Patterns of Prejudice. 39 (2): 138–161. doi:10.1080/00313220500106196. ISSN   0031-322X.
  44. Girard, Philippe R. (2005-06-01). "Caribbean genocide: racial war in Haiti, 1802–4". Patterns of Prejudice. 39 (2): 138–161. doi:10.1080/00313220500106196. ISSN   0031-322X.
  45. Pezzullo, Ralph (2006). Plunging Into Haiti: Clinton, Aristide, and the Defeat of Diplomacy. Univ. Press of Mississippi. ISBN   978-1-60473-534-5.
  46. Dayan (1998), p. 36.
  47. Dayan (1998), pp. 35–38.
  48. Pezzullo, Ralph (2006). Plunging Into Haiti: Clinton, Aristide, and the Defeat of Diplomacy. Univ. Press of Mississippi. ISBN   978-1-60473-534-5.
  49. Independent Haiti, Library of Congress Country Studies.
  50. Girard (2011), p. 326.
  51. 1 2 Girard (2011), p. 325.
  52. 1805 Constitution of Haiti.
  53. Girard (2005b), p. 56.
  54. James, C. L. R. (1989) [First published 1938]. The Black Jacobins; Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution (2nd ed.). New York: Vintage Books. pp. 373–374. ISBN   0-679-72467-2.
  55. McCurry, Stephanie (2010). Confederate Reckoning: Power and Politics in the Civil War South. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. pp. 12–13. ISBN   978-0-6740-4589-7.
  56. Lyon, J. B. (6 September 1861). "What Shall be Done with the Slaves?" . The New York Times. p. 2. ISSN   0362-4331.

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Alexandre Sabès Pétion was the first president of the Republic of Haiti from 1807 until his death in 1818. One of Haiti's founding fathers, Pétion belonged to the revolutionary quartet that also includes Toussaint Louverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and his later rival Henri Christophe. Regarded as an excellent artilleryman in his early adulthood, Pétion would distinguish himself as an esteemed military commander with experience leading both French and Haitian troops. The 1802 coalition formed by him and Dessalines against French forces led by Charles Leclerc would prove to be a watershed moment in the decade-long conflict, eventually culminating in the decisive Haitian victory at the Battle of Vertières in 1803.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haitian Revolution</span> 1791–1804 slave revolt in the French colony of Saint-Domingue

The Haitian Revolution was a successful insurrection by self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue, now the sovereign state of Haiti. The revolt began on 22 August 1791, and ended in 1804 with the former colony's independence. It involved black, biracial, French, Spanish, British, and Polish participants—with the ex-slave Toussaint Louverture emerging as Haiti's most prominent general. The revolution was the only slave uprising that led to the founding of a state which was both free from slavery and ruled by non-whites and former captives. It is now widely seen as a defining moment in the history of the Atlantic World.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">André Rigaud</span> Haitian military leader (1761–1811)

Benoit Joseph André Rigaud was the leading mulatto military leader during the Haitian Revolution. Among his protégés were Alexandre Pétion and Jean-Pierre Boyer, both future presidents of Haïti.

The Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) and the subsequent emancipation of Haiti as an independent state provoked mixed reactions in the United States. Among many white Americans this led to uneasiness, instilling fears of racial instability on its own soil and possible problems with foreign relations and trade between the two countries; among enslaved black Americans it fueled hope that the principles of the recent American Revolution might be realized in their own liberation.

The War of Knives, also known as the War of the South, was a civil war from June 1799 to July 1800 between the Haitian revolutionary Toussaint Louverture, a black ex-slave who controlled the north of Saint-Domingue, and his adversary André Rigaud, a mixed-race free person of color who controlled the south. Louverture and Rigaud fought over de facto control of the French colony of Saint-Domingue during the war. Their conflict followed the withdrawal of British forces from the colony during the early stages of the Haitian Revolution. The war resulted in Toussaint taking control of the entirety of Saint-Domingue, and Rigaud fleeing into exile.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint-Domingue expedition</span> French military expedition

The Saint-Domingue expedition was a French military expedition sent by Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul, under his brother-in-law Charles Victor Emmanuel Leclerc in an attempt to regain French control of the Caribbean colony of Saint-Domingue on the island of Hispaniola, and curtail the measures of independence taken by the former slave Toussaint Louverture. It departed in December 1801 and, after initial success, ended in a French defeat at the battle of Vertières and the departure of French troops in December 1803. The defeat ended forever Napoleon's dreams of a French empire in the West.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haitian Declaration of Independence</span> Document declaring Haiti as an independent nation

The Haitian Declaration of Independence was proclaimed on 1 January 1804 in the port city of Gonaïves by Jean-Jacques Dessalines, marking the end of 13-year long Haitian Revolution. The declaration marked Haiti becoming the first independent nation of Latin America and only the second in the Americas after the United States.

Joseph R. E. Bunel was a representative of the Haitian Revolutionary Government, who negotiated the first trade agreement between his nation and the United States, in 1799.

White Haitians, also known as Euro-Haitians, are Haitians of predominant or full European descent.

Polish Haitians are Haitian people of Polish ancestry dating to the early 19th century; a few may be Poles of more recent native birth who have gained Haitian citizenship. Cazale, a small village in the hills about 45 miles away from Port-au-Prince, is considered the main center of population of the ethnic Polish community in Haiti, but there are other villages as well. Cazale has descendants of surviving members of Napoleon's Polish Legionnaires which were forced into combat by Napoleon but later joined the Haitian slaves during the Haitian Revolution. Some 400 to 500 of these Poles are believed to have settled in Haiti after the war. They were given special status as Noir by Jean-Jacques Dessalines, governor-general and emperor, and full citizenship under the Haitian constitution.

French Haitians, also called Franco-Haitians are citizens of Haiti of full or partial French ancestry. The term is sometimes also applied to Haitians who migrated to France in the 20th and 21st century and who have acquired French citizenship, as well to their descendants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Armée Indigène</span> 1791–1806 Haitian abolitionist rebels

The Indigenous Army, also known as the Army of Saint-Domingue or Lame Endijèn in Haitian Creole, was the name bestowed to the coalition of anti-slavery rebels who fought in the Haitian Revolution. Encompassing both black slaves, maroons, and affranchis, the rebels were not officially titled the Armée indigène until January 1803, under the leadership of then-general Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Predated by insurrectionists such as François Mackandal, Vincent Ogé and Dutty Boukman, Toussaint Louverture, succeeded by Dessalines, led, organized, and consolidated the rebellion. The now full-fledged fighting force utilized its manpower advantage and strategic capacity to overwhelm French troops, ensuring the Haitian Revolution was the most successful of its kind.

During the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804), Haitian women of all social positions participated in the revolt that successfully ousted French colonial power from the island. In spite of their various important roles in the Haitian Revolution, women revolutionaries have rarely been included within historical and literary narratives of the slave revolts. However, in recent years extensive academic research has been dedicated to their part in the revolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genocide justification</span> Attempts to claim genocide is a moral action

Genocide justification is the claim that a genocide is morally excusable or necessary, in contrast to genocide denial, which rejects that genocide occurred. Perpetrators often claim that the genocide victims presented a serious threat, meaning that their killing was legitimate self-defense of a nation or state. According to modern international criminal law, there can be no excuse for genocide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dominican Creoles</span>

Saint Dominicans, or simply Dominicans, also known as Saint Dominguans, or Dominguans, are the people who lived in the French colony of Saint-Domingue before the Haitian Revolution. Dominican Creoles formed an ethnic group native to Saint-Domingue, they were all of the people who were born in Saint Domingue. The Creoles were well educated, and they created much art, such as the famed St. Dominican French Opera; their society prized manners, good breeding, tradition, and honor. During and after the Haitian Revolution, many St. Dominicans fled to locations in the United States, other Antilles islands, New York City, Cuba, France, Jamaica, and especially New Orleans in Louisiana, where they made an enormous impact on Louisiana Creole culture.

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