Haitians Fight For
Freedom is a documentary utilizing archival film and photos, interviews
and scenics, shot on digital video and beta.
In the 18th century,
Saint Domingue became France's wealthiest producing colony. The wealth came
from a plantation system based on the labor of black slaves, imported from
Africa. Recipients of the wealth were mainly French
planters and gens de couleur of African and French descent.
The Haitian Revolution
was like no other battle. In 1779
African “freed” slaves from Saint Domingue
(Haiti), led by General
Lafayette, volunteered their services to help the 13 States fight the British
in the Siege of Savannah. This
marked the end of the British outpost in North
America. The thought of independence and
victory rang clear in their minds as they took that idea back to Saint
Domingue.
At the time of the
slave uprising, the colony was in a melee with several revolutionary movements
brewing simultaneously in Haiti. The planters were moving toward independence
from France, the free people of color wanted full citizenship, and the slaves
wanted freedom. The French Revolution of 1789 largely inspired all with its
call for liberty and equality.
On August 22nd,
1791, on the eve of the
bloody insurrection of Haitian slaves against French Slave owners in Saint
Domingue, President George Washington was quick to alert Napoleon Bonaparte on
the need to put an end to the Slave Rebellion in
Haiti. He directed his Treasurer and Defense
Secretary to give money, weapons and ammunitions to quell the Haitian
Revolution.
During the night of
August 22, 1791, a wave of fire engulfed the
French West
Indies colony of St.
Domingue (present-day Haiti), as hundreds of thousands of slaves set fire to
plantations, torched cities, and massacred a terrified white population. The
slave rebellion that started that night--the most successful slave rebellion
in history--lasted 12 long years. It culminated in the founding of the second
independent nation in the Western Hemisphere and its first black-governed republic. But more
than this, the Haitian Revolution was a turning point in history, the
repercussions of which extended far beyond the small island nation. Perhaps
nowhere was its impact greater than in the
United
States, where
Haiti's slave revolt figured directly in two of the
most significant events in United
States history: the Louisiana Purchase and the American Civil
War.
In 1794 and 1800, the
United
States government passed
anti-slave trade laws to prevent the possible spread of the Haitian slave
revolt to the U.S. The first law
prohibited citizens from equipping ships engaged in slave trade commerce, and
the second prohibited Americans from serving aboard such ships or from having
any interest in their voyages
One of the most
notable leaders of the Haitian Revolution to emerge was Toussaint L'Ouverture,
a former slave. Toussaint organized armies of former slaves, which defeated
the Spanish and British forces. By 1801 he conquered
Santo
Domingo,
present-day Dominican
Republic, eradicated slavery, and proclaimed himself as
governor-general for life over the whole island.
In 1801, Napoleon
Bonaparte dispatched General Leclerc, along with thousands of troops to arrest
Toussaint, reinstate slavery, and restore French rule. When the French army landed on St.
Domingue, it found a barren wasteland of charred plantations, slaughtered
livestock, and mutilated white corpses.
Desaline, one of Toussaint’s commanding officers, emphasized the tactic
of destruction employed by the rebels:
“The whites from France cannot hold out against us in Saint
Domingue. They will fight at
first, but soon they will fall sick and die like flies…We will harass them and
beat them, we will burn the harvests and then take to the hills”. Desaline was right. Over the next twenty-two months,
Napolean’s army was devastated by guerrilla warfare, insurrections and yellow
fever.
In June 1802, the
French, exhausted and exasperated resorted to deception to defeat Toussaint,
luring him to a meeting to discuss peace. Once there, Toussaint was captured and
transported to France where he died a prisoner ten months
later.
Jean-Jacques
Dessalines, one of Toussaint's generals and a former slave, led the final
battle that defeated Napoleon's forces and on January 1,
1804, Dessalines declared
the nation independent, under its indigenous given name of
Haiti, thus, making it the first black republic in the
world and the first independent nation in Latin America.
After its
independence, Haiti was quick to spread its emancipation movement
throughout Latin
America by helping
countries such as Columbia, Bolivia, and Venezuela gain their independence from
Spain. But
while the U.S recognized these newly liberated nations,
Haiti had to wait until 1863 to have its independence
recognized by the U.S. Government.
The historical impact
of the Haitian Revolution extended far beyond the small
Caribbean island.
Without control of Haiti, the crown jewel of its planned empire,
France saw the Louisiana territory as a useless drain on its
resources. Needing money for his
renewed war with England, Napoleon sold the vast
Louisiana territory to the
United
States on April 30,
1803, for about four cents
an acre.
For the
United
States, the Louisiana Purchase was a turning point. The historical importance of which has
been ranked “next to the Declaration of Independence and the adoption of the
Constitution”. By acquiring
Louisiana, The United States removed the trade barrier,
which the French had imposed against Americans wishing to ship goods through
New
Orleans. So important was this port of commerce
that President Thomas Jefferson wrote:
There
is on the globe one spot the possessor of which is our natural and habitual
enemy. It is
New
Orleans,
through which the produce of three-eights of our territory must pass to
market. The day that
France takes
possession of New Orleans…we
must marry ourselves to the British fleet and
nation.
The Haitian Revolution
initiated all of this change, but its impact did not stop there. The revolt of the Haitian slaves also
influenced forces that foment what many have called the defining moment in
American History: the Civil War.
Slave uprisings in the
United
States greatly increased after 1791, and evidence of a
direct connection between this growing slave unrest and the Haitian revolution
exists. In the case of one major
slave revolt, Haitian born, Denmark Vesey, plots to burn
Charleston, South Carolina in 1802: evidence established that Vesey
communicated with Haitian blacks and even expected a Haitian invasion to
support his rebellion in South Carolina.
After the Vesey Plot
to burn Charleston was aborted, white Carolinians took measures to
ensure that free blacks were given even less freedom. As part of this effort, in December
1832, the South
Carolina
legislature enacted the Free-Colored Seamen’s Act, requiring that all free
blacks employed on incoming vessels be detained in jail while their ship was
in port.
In 1803, President
Thomas Jefferson got the U.S. congress to enact an economic embargo on
Haiti and two years later, that embargo became
effective to set the stage for years of a policy of isolation and economic
strangulation in Haiti.
Haiti,
the freedom for which they fought would prove ephemeral, largely erased by a
succession of dictators. But the
impact of the Haitian Revolution would be indelible in the United States,
where a slave revolt on foreign soil must today, be recognized as a major
turning point in American history.