Wars and Revolutions
The Wealth from Saint-Domingue
Saint-Domingue covered the entire island. Prior to the Treaty of Ryswick that was made in 1697, the island had been a Spanish colony called Hispaniola. Following the treaty, the Spanish recognized France’s claim on the western third of the island. The French had occupied this portion of the island for most of the century, so their system was already established by the time they were considered the rightful owners of the territory. This was part of the reason for the booming success of the territory that came to be known as Saint-Domingue.
Over the next 100 years, the French brought in approximately 800,000 slaves from Africa. The colonists quickly turned to cruel and torturous methods of intimidating their new slaves. As the French turned to increasingly more barbaric methods of controlling their slaves, their slaves became increasingly desperate for change. Most of the 18th century saw small revolts and conspiracies that sought to establish small pockets of freedom. These failed largely because the slaves were not as organized as the slave holders.
As colonists felt they had adequate control over their slaves, they were able to turn the fertile lands into a highly profitable colony for France. Before the Slave Rebellion of 1791, the French colony of Saint-Domingue shared the status of top sugar exporter in the world with Jamaica. As a result of the increasing prosperity and potential of the small island, the capital was moved to the port tow Port-au-Prince on the western side of the island. This allowed for a better flow of transportation and slaves to and from the island.
While sugar was the top export from most of the Caribbean islands, Saint-Domingue was also a source of other high-value exports, particularly coffee and cotton. The rich soil and generally favorable environment for growing crops made it ideal for growing a wide range of products that were difficult to grow on other continents.
However, the agricultural boom had several detrimental factors that helped set up a society that could not be perpetuated. The high demand for labor to retain the status as a jewel among colonies was done on the backs of countless slaves. As one of the most profitable colonies, and certainly the most profitable of the French colonies, the idea of freeing the slaves was not something that the monarchy would consider.
The cruelty and refusal to recognize the humanity of the slaves coupled with the extreme imbalance in the slave-to-colonist ratio resulted in King Louis the XIV becoming so distressed by the savage abuse of the slaves that he enacted the Code Noir in 1685. The code was meant to keep slave owners from the worst kinds of violence that had started to become prevalent at the time. Even though the slaves were considered property, Louis XIV did not see the brutality of the colonists as being justified, or morally acceptable.
Despite the Code Noir, slave owners felt justified that their actions were vindicated by the potential threat of a slave rebellion. Over the next 100 years, their violent treatment of the slaves only grew worse.
Guillaume Raynal was one of the most vocal about the inevitability of an uprising because of the inhumane cruelty of the colonists. As one of the most revered French Enlightenment philosophers of his time, Raynal understood that the slaves were humans who would only endure so much before they would reach a breaking point. He issued a prophetic warning more than ten years before the famous French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen: “The Africans only want a chief, sufficiently courageous, to lead them on to vengeance and slaughter.” While the French were able to see their own oppression under the French monarchy, they could not extend the same ideology to the slaves that they oppressed and abused. The only part of Raynal’s warning that the colonists heeded was the threat of the unified slaves. Instead of modifying their behaviors for the better, the slave masters became crueler, seeking to break the spirits of their slaves. Instead of creating the desired abject fear of their masters, this increased brutality created a greater sense of resolve and rebellion within the slaves.
As Raynal predicted, the slaves would rebel. However, the irony behind the rebellion was that it was triggered by the French Revolution. The ideals and espoused beliefs of the French Revolution resonated with the slaves, but it was the brutality of the oppressed French population under the monarchy that seems to have inspired the slaves into creating a strategic rebellion.
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A Captivating Guide to How the Haitian Revolution Began
The slave rebellion that was to shake the western world started in the Northern Province. In the region with the most to lose, the slaves had the most to gain by rising against the people who hoped to turn the French Revolution to their own advantage. The wealthy and powerful plantation owners were so narrowly focused on how to turn the tide in their favor that they failed to recognize the swell of the people they had oppressed for over a century. Segregating their slaves from others had been meant to keep them from hearing anything that could be used as inspiration to rebel. Instead, it provided the slaves with the distance from their masters’ eyes required to plan their own freedom.
The Haitian Revolution began with a secret voodoo ceremony that has been called the Bois Caiman Ceremony. Held in Morne-Rouge in August 1791, the slaves converged to determine their best course of action. Their anger had been fueled by a rumor that the plantation owners were going to fight against equality for freemen and mulattoes. Following months of planning, they were now ready to determine when was the right time to enact their plan.
The actions of Mackandal and Oge were imitated, resulting in more than 200 slaves coming forward as leaders and coordinators of the effort that was to start the rebellion. All from the Northern Province, the leaders held higher positions on their plantations, giving them the necessary authority to persuade other slaves to agree to the revolution. Their positions also ranged across the numerous needs of slave owners. Some of the leaders worked in the fields, others in the homes, and some were free. This created the kind of network that Mackandal had tried to maintain during the six years of his resistance. Through that network, they were able to plan for the Bois Caiman ceremony, and the actions that they were to take to remove the plantation owners from power.
Similar to Mackandal’s use of African tradition and religion to bring the slaves together, the larger underground revolution brought the slaves together. The ceremony highlighted their shared heritage. Meeting in a heavily wooded area, the slaves participated in a solemn voodoo ritual performed by Dutty Boukman, a voodoo priest from Jamaica, and an unnamed high priestess.
Perhaps it is romanticizing the events of the night, but stories about that night have said that a tropical storm or hurricane punctuated the resolve of the participants. In the winds of the storm, the rebels were convinced that it was an omen that pointed to their success. Regardless of the weather, the emotional atmosphere was charged, creating a legend out of the night based on its own merits. There are many aspects on which histories disagree. Some say that the ceremony happened on August 14, while others say it was August 21 or 22. There are a few things on which they do agree. The banning of voodoo under the French had helped to spread it in secret among the slaves. It was a unifying factor that reminded the slaves both what they were fighting for and who the enemy was.
The result of the ceremony was that the slaves had the plan and the signal they needed to act against their oppressors.
History’s Sense of Irony
It is with historic irony that the French colonial elite were given a chance to quell the rebellion. Within days of the Bois Caiman ceremony, a smaller band of slaves acted early. It is possible that they did not understand the instructions provided during the ceremony, or it could have been through impatience, but the early participants were captured in the act of setting an estate on fire. Though it is unclear what caused them to execute the plan early, it was clear that during their interrogation, some of the slaves divulged the plan, as well as the leaders who were to oversee the plan.
The irony is that the plantation owners who oversaw the named leaders could not, or would not, believe that their slaves were involved. Thinking that their slaves were either incapable of such an organized effort or believing that their slaves were too loyal to rebel, the slave owners stood by the very leaders who plotted their demise. The same wealthy and powerful members of the French colony elite had already ignored the vague prognostication of Reynal. Now that they were faced with the reality, they chose to blindly trust in their own perceived superiority and ability to control their slaves than to acknowledge the threat that they had created. Not all of them, but enough slave owners ignored the imminent danger that was reported to them. Those who did believe the reports successfully escaped with their lives and little else.
Despite the fact that the plan had been revealed, the slaves decided to go ahead with the set course of action.
The Revolution Begins
Within ten days of the Bois Caiman ceremony, the Haitian Revolution began. The Northern Province erupted in violence as Boukman and those under him moved across the region, killing or imprisoning everyone of European descent. After taking control of a plantation, they set it on fire.
Slaves carried a wide range of weaponry on their march. Some carried the torches that burned everything that belonged to their oppressor. Some carried rifles or pistols. Many slaves were armed with whatever improvised weapons they could find. At each plantation, the mass of marchers swelled with the slaves from the plantation.
By sunrise the next morning, most of the slaves in the region where Boukman and his marchers went had joined them. With between 1,000 and 2,000 rebels, the group was too big to be efficient. Splintering off into smaller groups, each of the groups moved toward a specific plantation to continue the revolution.
The astounding organization and planning enacted by the uneducated slaves soon proved that they had been severely underestimated. Their numbers continued to swell so that the remaining plantation owners began to fear that the primary city in the north would be taken. The city of Le Cap was considered the cultural heart of the colony, and it was where the majority of the slave owners fled after the slave bands went unchecked. To further discourage the slave owners, any captured slave offered disheartening warnings about the city itself. As they were tortured the former slaves mocked their torturers with the knowledge that the slave rebellion numbers included people everywhere, including within the precious city of Le Cap. Both sides realized the importance that controlling the city would play in the overall revolution.
Those with power within the city set up a way of monitoring the city for any sign of fire, a signal that had come to be associated with the slave rebellion. By monitoring the skyline, they hoped to prevent the destruction of the city by the rebels who lived within it.
Away from the city, the slave rebellion continued to spread, killing those of European descent who had not fled and burning everything that could help the French colony return to its former oppression. However, the rebellion also began to change. Slaves and freemen who were not willing to participate in the revolution were killed. The rebellion would not allow for any potential betrayal based on misplaced loyalty to slave owners.
In less than 48 hours, the slave rebellion had destroyed the majority of the most profitable plantations in the Northern Province. The leaders had planned well beyond the plantations in the north. To succeed, they had to continue to press forward before the French colonists had time to respond. Having found success in the first 48 hours, the marchers rested for a day before beginning the next phase of the plan.
On the morning of August 24, they pressed forward, aiming to reach Port-Margot by the day’s end. This would mean they would reach the La Cap less than a week after the revolution began. Knowing that the rebellion would eventually target the city, the inhabitants prepared. They prepared cannons and station guards at every possible entrance into the city. For the first time since they began marching, the rebellion faced a real challenge. They were not adequately equipped to face such a heavily armed resistance. Even though they had taken little time to rest and had silenced anyone they thought might help the city, the French colonists had adequate incentive to quickly mobilize against them.
The first attempt to take the city failed, and the rebellion fell back to strategize a new plan of attack. Though they had initially succeeded in resisting the slaves, the resistance soon proved to be too short-sighted against the sheer numbers and planning of their former slaves. The same day that they were driven back, the former slaves regrouped and divided to take on different points of the city. Splitting into two different groups, they approached the city from two different locations and began a siege. Though they were not armed with the necessary tools to take the city, the former slaves were able to stop those in the city from gaining any more supplies, including food.
Over the next three weeks, the city’s inhabitants attempted to eliminate the former slaves. Though the city dwellers only had one place to hide, the former slaves had the luxury of time. Whenever the French colonists began to gain the upper hand, the slaves were able to retreat into the woods. The colonials gained nothing from this tactic, and the former slaves continued to wear them down as nothing could make it through the siege.
Slaves to the north east of the city soon joined the rebellion. Their success was swift, and soon all communication between the city and the North Plain was eliminated.
By the end of August 1791, more than 15,000 slaves had joined the rebellion. Le Cap sent out pleas to many of the surrounding islands and the United States asking for military assistance. It had taken the slaves one week and one day to obliterate the plantations in the Northern Province. More than 180 plantations were annihilated. As September 1791 began, there were no plantations within a 50-mile radius of Le Cap.
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