Haiti and the Age of Democratic
Revolution
“The
Armed
Black”
Haitian Revolution, 1790-1804
John Trumball, “The Surrender
of Cornwallis”
Annual Slave Imports to Saint
Domingue
50000
45000
40000
35000
30000
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
thousands
1700- 1725- 1751- 1777
1724 1750 1774
1790
Saint Domingue Society
 Grande Blancs
 Whites: 25,000
 Petite Blancs
 Gens de Couleurs
 Slaves
 Free Colored:
25,000
 Slaves: 450,000
Versailles
Estates General, Paris, 1789
National Assembly
Declaration of the Rights of Man and
of the Citizen
Approved August 26, 1789

1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social
distinctions may be founded only upon the general good.

2. The aim of all political association is the preservation of
the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights
are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.

3. The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the
nation. No body nor individual may exercise any authority
which does not proceed directly from the nation.

4. Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which
injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights
of each man has no limits except those which assure to the
other members of the society the enjoyment of the same
rights. These limits can only be determined by law.
Honore Gabriel Riquetti,
Count of Mirabeau
Are the colonies placing their Negroes and their
gens de couleur in the class of men or in that
of the beasts of burden? .. The free blacks are
proprietors and taxpayers, and they have not
been allowed to vote.”
If the colonists want the Negroes and gens de
couleur to count as men, let them enfranchise
them first; that all be electors, that all may be
elected. If not, we beg them to observe that in
proportioning the number of deputies to the
population of France, we have taken into
consideration neither our horses nor our mules.
Free Citizens of Color
“Address to the National Assembly”
How do the free citizens of color argue
that they deserve representation in
the National Assembly?
What evidence do they offer that they
deserve full rights as citizens?
Saint Domingue 1790-91
“All mortals are free”
Petits Blancs
rebellion in St. Marc
Grand Blanc
arm slaves vs Petit
Blancs
Vincent Oge Rebellion (gen
de couleur)
Boukman Rebellion, August
1791
Leger Felicite Sonthonax
 Representative
French Republic
 Enforce law
enfranchising all
Gens de Couleur
 Aug. 29, 1793
emancipation
French Emancipation
February 4, 1794 “to punish white traitors”
 Andre Rigaud
 Toussaint
Louverture
Napoleon & Death Toussaint (1802)
Capture Toussaint (Jacob Lawrence, 1936)
TO TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE (Wordsworth)
TOUSSAINT, the most unhappy of men!
O miserable Chieftain! where and when
Wilt thou find patience? Yet die not; do thou
Wear rather in thy bonds a cheerful brow:
Though fallen thyself, never to rise again,
Live, and take comfort. Thou hast left behind
Powers that will work for thee; air, earth, and
Skie …;
Thy friends are exultations, agonies,
And love, and man's unconquerable mind.
Morning Post, London, February 2, 1803
Haitian Independence (1804)
Charles Leclerc, , “we must
destroy all of the blacks of
the mountains – men and
women – and only spare
children under 12 years of
age. We must destroy half
of those of the plains and
must not leave a single
colored person in the colony
who has worn an
epaulette.”
 Brutality Rochambeau
 Jean-Jacques Dessalines
declares indepdendence,
“Haiti”
Two American Republics:
US & Haiti
 Adams
 James Weldon
Administration aid
Johnson (1920)
Toussaint vs
“The unfitness of
Rigaud
the Haitian people
to govern
themselves has
 Jefferson
been
the
subject
Administration
of propaganda for
denies recognition
the last century”
Ntozake Shange, For the Colored Girls
Who Have Considered Suicide;
When the Rainbow is Enuf
Langston Hughes (1934): The Emperor
of Haiti
…Toussaint L’Ouverture was the beginin uv
DESSALINES : (Who has remained standing,
begins to berate his guests) Drums in the
Court! The idea! Suppose we had guests
from abroad, what would they think of
us? They'd think we were all savages,
that's what. Savages! Here I am, trying to
build a civilization in Haiti good as any the
whites have in their lands. Trying to set
up a Court equal to any Court in Europe.
And what do I find---voodoo drums in the
banquet hall! Who gave orders for that?

(He pauses as the distant drum continues
its throbbing beat) The peasants, up all
night playing drums! And the fields only
half productive. But not only the peasants
are to blame. You Lords and Ladies,
Dukes and Counts are to blame, too. I
give you land, and you neglect to work it.
reality for me in the summer contest for
who colored child can read 15 books in
three weeks
I won & raved abt Toussaint L’Ouverture at the
afternoon ceremony was dis-qualified cuz
Toussaint belonged in the ADULT
READING ROOM & I cried & carried dead
Toussaint home in the book he wuz dead
& livin to me cuz
Toussaint & them they held the citadel gainst
the french wid the spirits of ol dead
africans from outta the ground walkin
cannon ball shootin spirits to free Haiti &
they waznt slaves no more…