Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that answer the question.
Query: How many died in the Haitian Revolution?
In the early 21st century, historian Robert L. Scheina estimated that the slave rebellion resulted in the death of 350,000 Haitians and 50,000 European troops.[93] According to the Encyclopedia of African American Politics, "Between 1791 and independence in 1804 nearly 200,000 blacks died, as did thousands of mulattoes and as many as 100,000 French and British soldiers."[94] Yellow fever caused the most deaths. Geggus points out that at least 3 of every 5 British troops sent there in 1791–1797 died of disease.[95][96] There has been considerable debate over whether the number of deaths caused by disease was exaggerated.[97]
Deborah Grelaud emigrated as an exile from Saint-Domingue in 1793 during the Haitian Revolution. She fled with her four young children: John, Arthur, Titon, and Aurora. After spending a few years in Annapolis, Maryland, she moved to Philadelphia and opened the academy. Deborah Grelaud's husband is believed to have had a position with the successful merchant Stephen Girard, who was known to help refugees of the Haitian and French Revolutions. Her sons subsequently served as supercargoes on Girard's ships. Many refugees of both the French Revolution and the Haitian Revolution lived in destitution in the United States, despite their previous status. Whether or not Grelaud risked destitution, she and other exiles from Haiti, including Anne Marie Sigoigne and Charles and Marie Picot, opened French schools in Philadelphia to support themselves.
The central issue for the Haitian revolution was independence, specifically freedom from their enslavement under France. In its social and political complexity, the Haitian Revolution resembled the simultaneous revolution in France, since the demand of the revolutionaries was secession from the ruling-class of France. Moreover, unlike mainland colonies, Haiti was an easily blockaded Caribbean island with a small population, which made independence a less viable option for them.
Louis-Jacques Beauvais, born in 1759 at the Croix-des-Bouquets Saint-Domingue and died on September 12, 1799 in a shipwreck, is a Haitian general of the Haitian Revolution.
During the Haitian Revolution, many people fled to other places. When the Haitians occupied the eastern part of the island (the present Dominican Republic), they administered the town as part of the Department of Artibonite.
The revolution of African slaves brought many fears to colonies surrounding Haiti and the Caribbean. Prominent wealthy American slave owners, reading about the revolution, also read speculation about what might come in their own states. However, newspapers like the Colombian Centinel took the extra steps to support the revolution, in the sense that it was based on the foundations of the American Revolution.[144] The French media also played an important role in the Haitian Revolution, with contributions that made many French upstarts quite interested in the young, passionate Toussaint's writings of freedom.
Historians continue to debate the importance of the Haitian Revolution. David Geggus asks: "How much of a difference did it make?" A limited amount, he concludes, for slavery flourished in the western hemisphere for many more decades.[135]
Most French colonists died or fled Saint-Domingue during the Haitian Revolution and the surviving remainder were either annihilated in the 1804 Haiti Massacre or were thought to be of some use to the country's development, such as doctors, teachers,and engineers. These colonists were considered valuable and were not to be harmed in any way. Prior to the U.S. occupation of 1915 it was hard for white foreigners to become Haitian citizens due to restrictions on owning land in Haiti. Exceptions were made for Germans, Poles, and Frenchmen who had fought with the rebels against France in the war and their descendants. White foreigners could become citizens only by marrying Haitians.
Victoria "Toya" Montou (died 1805) was a female soldier and freedom fighter in the army of Jean-Jacques Dessalines during the Haitian Revolution. She was reportedly Dessalines's aunt. Toya Montou was not the only woman to serve in the Haitian army during the revolution, but mostly, the names of the female soldiers are forgotten; other exceptions are Marie-Jeanne Lamartiniére, who served at the Battle of Crête-à-Pierrot in 1802, and Sanité Belair.
Part of a series on theHistory of Haiti Pre-Colombian Haiti (before 1492) Captaincy General of Santo Domingo (1492–1625) Saint-Domingue (1625–1804) Haitian Revolution First Empire of Haiti (1804–1806) 1804 Haiti massacre Siege of Santo Domingo State of Haiti (1806–1811) Kingdom of Haiti (1811–1820) Unification of Hispaniola (1822–1844) Second Empire of Haiti (1849–1859) Haitian-Dominican Wars Republic of Haiti (1859–1957) United States occupation of Haiti Duvalier dynasty (1957–1986) Anti-Duvalier protest movement Republic of Haiti (1986–present) 1991 Haitian coup d'état Operation Uphold Democracy 2004 Haitian coup d'état 2010 Haiti earthquake United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti Timeline Topics Military history List of revolutions and coups d'état Haitiportalvt
"The Kingdom of This World" takes place prior to, during, and after the Haitian Revolution which began in 1791 and led to the declaration of Haitian independence in 1804. This revolution was a turning point in global history because it was unthinkable that such a massive anti-slavery revolt would not only take place, but also be successful; therefore, it challenged the prejudices of its time and ultimately influenced abolitionist movements throughout the Americas. Haitians became the second nation to break from their European colonizer (following the US). The Haitian revolution differed from the American revolution however, as it involved the formation of a new national identity. Unlike in the US, the entire social and economic order that had been put in place through the practice of plantation slavery in Haiti was transformed.
Before the construction of Sans-Souci, Milot was a French plantation that Christophe managed for a period during the Haitian Revolution. Many of Henri Christophe's contemporaries noted his ruthlessness, and it is unknown how many laborers died during the palace's construction. Under his reign, the palace was the site of opulent feasts and dances. It had immense gardens, artificial springs, and a system of waterworks. Though Sans-Souci is now an empty ruin, at the time its splendor was noted by many foreign visitors. One American physician remarked that it had "the reputation of having been one of the most magnificent edifices of the West Indies."
The independence of Saint-Domingue was proclaimed by Dessalines on 1 January 1804. It has been estimated that between 24,000 and 100,000 Europeans, and between 100,000 and 350,000 Haitian ex-slaves, died in the revolution. Tropical disease was a major factor in the number of deaths. Many black and Caribbean people died fighting for white masters; and a large number of British and Spanish soldiers, deployed to neighbouring Saint-Domingue, died aiding the rebels.
The Revolution in Haiti did not wait on the Revolution in France. The call for modification of society was influenced by the revolution in France, but once the hope for change found a place in the hearts of the Haitian people, there was no stopping the radical reformation that was occurring.[47] The Enlightenment ideals and the initiation of the French Revolution were enough to inspire the Haitian Revolution, which evolved into the most successful and comprehensive slave rebellion in history.[47] Just as the French were successful in transforming their society, so were the Haitians. On April 4, 1792, The French National Assembly granted freedom to slaves in saint-Domingue.[46] The revolution culminated in 1804; Haiti was an independent nation solely of freed peoples.[48] The activities of the revolutions sparked change across the world. France's transformation was most influential in Europe, and Haiti's influence spanned every location that continued to practice slavery. John E. Baur honors Haiti as home of the most influential revolution in history.[49]
Baur, John. "International Repercussions of the Haitian Revolution." The Americas 26, no. 4 (1970). Blackburn, Robin. "Haiti, Slavery, and the Age of the Democratic Revolution", William and Mary Quarterly 63.4, 633–674 (2006) Fick, Carolyne "The Haitian revolution and the limit of freedom: defining citizenship in the revolutionary era". Social History, Vol 32. No 4, November 2007 Geggus, David Patrick. The Impact of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press 2001. ISBN978-1-57003-416-9 Girard, Philippe. "Black Talleyrand: Toussaint Louverture's Secret Diplomacy with England and the United States," William and Mary Quarterly 66:1 (Jan. 2009), 87–124. Girard, Philippe. "Napoléon Bonaparte and the Emancipation Issue in Saint-Domingue, 1799–1803," French Historical Studies 32:4 (Fall 2009), 587–618. Girard, Philippe. "Jean-Jacques Dessalines and the Atlantic System: A Reappraisal," William and Mary Quarterly (July 2012). Joseph, Celucien L. Race, Religion, and The Haitian Revolution: Essays on Faith, Freedom, and Decolonization (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2012) Joseph, Celucien L. From Toussaint to Price-Mars: Rhetoric, Race, and Religion in Haitian Thought (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013) Ott, Thomas O. The Haitian Revolution, 1789–1804. University of Tennessee Press, 1973. Popkin, Jeremy D., You Are All Free: The Haitian Revolution and the Abolition of Slavery (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010) Jeffers, Jen (2016)
The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution is a 1938 book by Trinidadian historian C. L. R. James, a history of the Haitian Revolution of 1791–1804. He went to Paris to research this work, where he met Haitian military historian Alfred Auguste Nemours. James's text places the revolution in the context of the French Revolution, and focuses on the leadership of Toussaint L'Ouverture, who was born a slave but rose to prominence espousing the French Revolutionary ideals of liberty and equality. These ideals, which many French revolutionaries did not maintain consistently with regard to the black humanity of their colonial possessions, were embraced, according to James, with a greater purity by the persecuted blacks of Haiti; such ideals "meant far more to them than to any Frenchman."
Vertières is the site of the Battle of Vertières, the last and defining battle of the Haitian Revolution. On November 18, 1803, the Haitian army led by Jean-Jacques Dessalines defeated a French colonial army led by the Comte de Rochambeau. The French withdrew their remaining 7,000 troops (many had died from yellow fever and other diseases), and in 1804, Dessalines' revolutionary government declared the independence of Haiti. The revolution had been underway, with some pauses, since the 1790s.
The Haitian Revolution was a revolution ignited from below, by the underrepresented majority of the population.[41] A huge majority of the supporters of the Haitian revolution were slaves and freed Africans who were severely discriminated against by colonial society and the law.[42]
Catherine Flon is regarded as one of the symbols of the Haitian Revolution and independence. She is celebrated for sewing the first Haitian flag in 1803 and maintains an important place in Haitian memory of the Revolution to this day.
Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier's second novel, The Kingdom of This World (1949), (translated into English 1957), explores the Haitian Revolution in depth. It is one of the novels that inaugurated the Latin American renaissance in fiction beginning in the mid-20th century. Madison Smartt Bell has written a trilogy called All Souls' Rising (1995) about the life of Toussaint Louverture and the slave uprising. C. Richard Gillespie, former Towson University professor, wrote a novelization of Louverture's life in the Revolution titled Papa Toussaint (1998). Though not referred to by name, Haiti is the backdrop for the 1990 Broadway musical Once on This Island by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. The musical, based on the novel My Love, My Love by Rosa Guy, describes the social stratification of the island, and contains a song that briefly outlines the history of the Haitian Revolution. In 2004 an exhibition of paintings entitled Caribbean Passion: Haiti 1804 by artist Kimathi Donkor, was held in London to celebrate the bicentenary of Haiti's revolution.[146] In 2010, author Isabel Allende wrote a historical novel entitled Island Beneath the Sea, which documents the Haitian Revolution through the eyes of a slave woman living on the island. William Dietrich set his 2012 novel, The Emerald Storm during the Haitian Revolution. The television mini-series features the Haitian Revolution in its opening scene. The film Top Five refers to a fictional film within the film called "Uprize", ostensibly about this revolution. The role of Bois Caiman, Boukman, and Vodou generally, would become the subject of a controversial, discredited neo-evangelical theology in the 1990s that insisted that Haiti was pledged to the devil during the Revolution.[147] Jacobin, an American socialist periodical, uses an image of Toussaint Louverture for its logo.
Philippe Girard, a Guadeloupean academic, has noted that the document is multi-layered with references to six different audiences: "the French, Creoles, Anglo-Americans, Latin Americans, mixed-race Haitians, and black Haitians". Moreover, the Haitian declaration was important because it marked the end of a revolution, not the beginning, unlike most revolutionary struggles prior to the mid-twentieth century. Also, the primary motive behind this revolution was not independence, but rather racial equality and emancipation.
The end of the Haitian Revolution in 1804 marked the end of colonialism on the island. However, the social conflict cultivated under slavery continued to affect the population for years to come. The revolution left in place the affranchi élite, who continued to rule Haiti while the formidable Haitian army kept them in power. France continued the slavery system in French Guiana, Martinique, and Guadeloupe.[124]
Haitian Creole and culture first entered Cuba with the arrival of Haitian immigrants at the start of the 19th century. Haiti was a French colony, and the final years of the 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution brought a wave of French settlers and their Haitian slaves to Cuba. They came mainly to the east, and especially Guantanamo, where the French later introduced sugar cultivation, constructed sugar refineries and developed coffee plantations. By 1804, some 30,000 French were living in Baracoa and Maisí, the furthest eastern municipalities of the province. Later, Haitians continued to come to Cuba to work as braceros (hand workers, from the Spanish word brazo, meaning "arm") in the fields cutting cane. Their living and working conditions were not much better than slavery. Although they planned to return to Haiti, most stayed on in Cuba. For years, many Haitians and their descendants in Cuba did not identify themselves as such or speak Creole. In the eastern part of the island, many Haitians suffered discrimination. But according to the Castro regime, since 1959, when he took over, this discrimination has stopped.
There is a significant Haitian population in South Florida, specifically the Miami enclave of Little Haiti. New Orleans, Louisiana has many historic ties to Haiti that date back to the Haitian Revolution. New York City, especially in Flatbush, East Flatbush and Springfield Gardens, has a thriving émigré community with the second largest population of Haitians of any state in the nation. There are large and active Haitian communities in Boston; Spring Valley (New York); New Jersey; Washington D.C.; Providence, Rhode Island; Georgia; Connecticut and Pennsylvania. There are also large Haitian communities in Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Paris, France; Havana, Cuba; San Juan, Puerto Rico and Kingston, Jamaica.
The call for modification of society was influenced by the revolution in France, and once the hope for change found a place in the hearts of the Haitian people, there was no stopping the radical reformation that was occurring. The Enlightenment ideals and the initiation of the French Revolution were enough to inspire the Haitian Revolution, which evolved into the most successful and comprehensive slave rebellion. Just as the French were successful in transforming their society, so were the Haitians. On April 4, 1792, The French National Assembly granted freedom to slaves in Haiti and the revolution culminated in 1804; Haiti was an independent nation solely of freed peoples. The activities of the revolutions sparked change across the world. France's transformation was most influential in Europe, and Haiti's influence spanned across every location that continued to practice slavery. John E. Baur honors Haiti as home of the most influential Revolution in history.