Haitian Revolution Begins (1791)

Mon Aug 22, 1791

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

On this day in 1791, a group of enslaved people in the French colony of Saint Domingue, led by Toussaint Louverture, rebelled against their oppressors, beginning the Haitian Revolution. By 1792, rebels controlled a third of the island.

The Haitian Revolution was a successful insurrection by people enslaved by French colonizers in Saint-Domingue, now the sovereign state of Haiti. Some sources also list the rebellion as beginning August 21st.

Haiti would go on to achieve independence from France in 1804, 13 years later. 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 former captives, according to historian Franklin W. Knight.

Toussaint Louverture went on to become a 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.

Between 100,000 - 200,000 black people (out of 500,000 total) died in the time between the initial uprising and independence thirteen years later. 24,000 of the 40,000 white people on the island were killed.

In 1825, French King Charles X surrounded Haiti with warships and coerced the government into agreeing to pay a debt of 150 million gold francs in reparations to French slavers, a debt that immiserated the new country’s economy.

“We have dared to be free. Let us dare to be so by ourselves and for ourselves.”

- Jean-Jacques Dessalines