Haitian Independence (1804)

Sun Jan 01, 1804

Image

Image: The painting “Attack and take of the Crête-à-Pierrot” (March 24th, 1802), by Auguste Raffet [blackpast.org]

On this day in 1804, the Haitian Republic was established by self-liberated slaves, the culmination of years of violent revolt against French colonizers. More than 200,000 Haitians died in the struggle for liberation.

The Haitian Revolution was the only uprising of enslaved people that led to the founding of a state which was both free from slavery, and ruled by non-whites and former captives.

The revolt began on August 21st, 1791, in what was then the French colony of Saint-Domingue. Thousands of people began to kill their masters, plunge the colony into civil war.

Within the next ten days, slaves had taken control of the entire Northern Province in an uprising of unprecedented scale. The fighting was particularly brutal, and more than 200,000 black people died in the years between the initial uprising and formal independence.

Although Toussaint Louverture established himself as a military leader of the revolution by 1801, he died shortly before independence was won. Jean-Jacques Dessalines, his former lieutenant, became the first leader of Haiti.