Welcome back, sports fans! After a two week break, we have returned to give you a backward glimpse of the greatest thing to ever happen in Haiti: the Haitian Revolution. After all of the dark stories about slavery and genocide we have had to give you, we will retell another story about the deaths of those who enforced these things. We will show you a picture of vengeance on the European enforcers of the system which enslaved and killed millions, though we must add that not all Europeans enforced slavery; some of them helped to overthrow it.
This story of the Haitian Revolution is by far our favorite part of Haitian history, because it is poetic justice at its finest: the oppressed successfully destroying their oppressors after years of unfairness and cruelty. Note that this is also the only instance in which the African slaves of Europeans successfully managed to end their own slavery; they took justice into their own hands, and they carried it out.
We must also note that this story is a long, fairly complex one, and that it would take a very long blog entry to retell the whole thing. With that in mind, what we will do here is take a small snippet of an interview we conducted with an unnamed descendant of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who wished to remain anonymous due to his involvement in Haiti's currently turbulent political scene. Our unnamed friend gave us some very interesting facts about that revolution, some of which are relevant even today...
"Ah, the revolution...well, you have to look at this thing in three different ways. It was more than just a fight for freedom; it was a total upheaval. It has its battles, but it also has social and especially racial sides to it, you know...
"Even the fighting side to it is pretty complex. The revolution lasted 13 years, from 1791 to 1804. Before we even get to talking about that, though, we need to first talk at least a little about the French Revolution, because that's what set the whole thing off....The French Revolution had the effect of ticking quite a few folks off. It caused Haitian slaves to want freedom, because of then liberating theme in the new French constitution. It caused the lesser whites to start trying harder to gain more power so they could become more equal to the greater whites...It caused to ruling whites to want self-government from France. It even cause the mixed-race people to want more social equality and freedom. So you see, by 1791, everybody was pretty tense. All it would take was one something to set everyone off.
"That 'something' came in the form of the deaths of two mulatto (black/white; mixed-race) rebels at the hands of the greater whites. Those deaths stirred up the mulattoes who had already been campaigning for freedom. The next thing to happen was a Voodou meeting led by Boukman, a Voodou 'magician'. This meeting, which happened on the night of August 22, 1791, marked the real start of the revolution.
"This is the part where the racial side shows up. At first, the Revolution was fractured. Really, it was not totally unified until a long time later, when Toussaint [L'Overture] was captured. You see, it is true that slaves and mulattoes and freedmen fought together after that night, but they were not unified in their intentions. The mulattoes were socially isolated from the blacks and slaves, and they started the fighting. The slaves, however, joined in, and the overall actions were unified, and that's what really mattered.
"The fighting went through several major phases. Immediately after it began, whites were killed and fled, early French assaults were repelled thanks to the skill of Toussaint, and Saint Domingue was captured by him and his 40,000 or so forces on January 26, 1801. Between 1801 and 1802 (the year when Toussaint was captured) he managed to stabilize the island somewhat, and secure deals with other nations like the U.S. in order to strengthen the country monetarily. In 1802, Napoleon, the new and powerful ruler of France, sent a large force to restore slavery in Haiti. Although this force did not defeat all of the Haitian forces, it did capture Toussaint and do a fair amount of damage to the Haitian troops, forcing them to fall back into the mountains.
"This point marks the final unity of mulattoes and blacks into one solid group, led by the dark-skinned Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who had previously been a high ranking officer under L'Overture. Under his leadership, the now more resolute than ever forces of unity peoples of African ancestry, along with a few Europeans, set fire to plantations and massacred those sympathetic to colonialism and slavery. Finally, in 1803, the French begged for a truce to evacuate. This marked the end of the major fighting. After this, most whites were either dead or fled, except for 400 or so Polish who had helped the effort, and on January 1, 1804, Haiti regained its name. Oh, how sweet it must've been!
"I will say one more thing about the name Haiti. This was thought to be the original name of the island, and so it is seen as something totally non-white. That is also a way to look at Haiti. Most of the white systems put in place were abolished, and a totally new, black-dominated order emerged. Haiti is the only country where the slaves freed themselves, and it is a shining example of black intelligence, talent, and might. The reason, then, for Haiti's poverty, to this day, lies in its being a black-led country in a white-run world. Much of what happened after the revolution, which I wish I had time to retell, involved repression from countries like France and the U.S, and were it not for them, Haiti would not be poor. All in all, Haiti is still a great country, and always will be. Lontan ap viv Ayitit!"
Thank you, sir, and good luck with your campaign. Next week we will have with us another guest to talk about the end of that horrid evil, slavery. Until then, stay tuned, sports fans!
Sources
Copeau, Steve. The History of Haiti. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2008. Print.
Toussaint L'Overture. Ed. George F. Tyson, Jr. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc. 1973. Print.
The World of the Haitian Revolution. Ed. David Patrick Greggus and Norman Fiering. Bloomington, Indiana; Indiana University Press, 2009. Print.
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