# The Haitian factor  
The revolution of Saint-Domingue, which started in 1791, had a profound influence on resistance throughout the Americas, from Venezuela to Colombia, Guyana to Uruguay (Rael, 2015, pp. 100-106). In the United States of America, as in other countries, the black revolutionaries' success not only spread fear in the white population of the possibility of more plots and uprisings, but it also inspired enslaved and free blacks. The arrival in American cities of about twelve thousand enslaved people brought by their owners fleeing the island contributed to both fear and encouragement. Rumours of insurrections organized by 'St. Domingo Negroes' spread from South Carolina to Virginia. In April 1795, a plot partly inspired by the revolutions in France and Saint-Domingue was uncovered in Pointe Coupée, Louisiana, then a Spanish territory. Most conspirators were enslaved but the plan also involved free people of colour, a few Frenchmen and some Native Americans. The ensuing trial showed that the conspirators were well aware of the 1791 uprising and that France had abolished slavery in 1794. Twenty-three men were hanged and thirty-one were banished. Slaveholders were enjoined by the Spanish authorities
to maintain [their slaves] in such a state of contentment and subordination as may remove from their minds the notions of acquiring a liberty, that has caused the effusion of so much blood to those of Saint-Domingue (Hunt, 1988, p. 28).