BY 1791 CE, there were as many as 550 000 blacks in Haiti and the white population was not more than 40 000.
About 30 000 of the blacks were free, and the remaining
500 000 blacks were slaves.
Of the 30 000 free blacks, half of them were mullato people, i.e. mixed race offspring between white masters and black slave women.
This is evidence that miscegenation was strongly encouraged by the French in Haiti.
There was also a great number of runaway slaves that were known as the Maroons. These Maroons were very Afrocentric and the likes of Marcus Garvey were descendants of Maroons from Jamaica.
Many of the blacks were understandably furious with whites from generation to generation because of the cruel manner in which they were treated.
This would eventually lead to a series of uprisings.
The Maroons would be very active throughout the slave rebellions of Haiti.
In 1791 CE, the blacks of Haiti, which was then known as Saint Domingue, planned a mass slave rebellion which was headed by a former slave called Toussaint l’Overture.
Toussaint was a full blooded black man.
The French Revolution of 1789 CE had hypocritically acknowledged the right of every human being to freedom, equal rights and justice, yet the blacks of their colonies were still enslaved and treated as sub-humans.
The black majority were known to the French settlers as Petit Blancs.
In 1791 CE the blacks made up their mind that they would rather die free, than to remain slaves under the minority whites.
Only the few free blacks, of whom half of them were coloureds, were empowered to a degree by France’s ‘Declaration of Rights of Man’, as they were now allowed to participate in economic activities and property ownership.
Many of them would use their earnings to help fund the rebellion of the blacks, for example Toussaint l’Overture.
The white settlers of Haiti were at odds with the French government because they were restricted to trading their slave grown coffee, cotton and sugar with France alone.
For this reason the whites of Haiti were yearning for independence from France.
On August 21 1791 CE, under the leadership of Toussaint, the black slaves began their rebellion against their white slave masters.
Within a year they had successfully taken over a third of the whole Island of Haiti. The blacks fought the whites with all they could get their hands on.
They raided the white farmers, killed them with guns, machetes and other tools. They looted the white people’s stored food which the blacks had slaved to produce. The houses and property of the whites were also burnt down.
Many of the captured slave masters, particularly the ones who were known to be cruel to the blacks, were whipped before being killed, and then beheaded.
Similar atrocities had been perpetrated by whites against blacks throughout the period of slavery.
The cruelty that the whites had invented to oppress the slaves was now haunting them.
In retaliation, the French government sent troops to aid the white settlers of Haiti on numerous occasions.
In 1793 CE, Britain also intervened on the side of the French because they feared the spread of slave rebellion in other parts of the region.
Despite this, the blacks of Haiti proved a superior force because of their greater numbers and strong zeal for freedom.
In 1798 CE, the British retreated after being defeated by Toussaint’s forces on numerous occasions.
Polish and Spanish troops also came to the aid of the French settlers.
By then, 24 000 whites making up more than half the white settler population of Haiti had been killed and as many as 100 000 blacks had lost their lives.
In 1801 CE, Toussaint l’Overture took the slave rebellion to areas beyond Haiti. His troops successfully abolished slavery in neighbouring Santo Domingo which was under the Spanish.
l’Overture appointed himself governor of Santo Domingo which is now known as the Dominican Republic.
Unfortunately, the infamous warmonger Napoleon Bonaparte became the ruler of France in that same period.
Napoleon sent armed troops numbering 43 000 under the command of his brother-in-law called Charles.
Their mission was to capture Toussaint l’Overture, restore French control over Haiti and reinstitute black slavery on the island.
Napoleon’s troops managed to capture and send Toussaint to France where he was imprisoned and killed in 1803 CE.
However, Napoleon’s troops did not manage to restore French dominance and black slavery in Haiti.
Another black man, who was a former slave and close comrade of Toussaint took over as leader of the Haitian slave rebellion after l’Overture’s capture.
His name was Jean Jacques Dessalines and his forces vanquished the French on November 18 1803 CE at the Battle of Vertieres.
In the beginning of 1804 CE, Dessalines declared the island independent and renamed it Haiti.
That same year, Dessalines is said to have authorised the killing of about 3 000 whites.
Haiti became the first black republic in the world and also the first nation in the Americas to gain independence from the European powers, besides the USA which remained under white control after their independence.
The Haitian slave rebellion was the most successful slave revolution ever conducted by black people.
Unfortunately, the effects of French colonial rule did not leave Haiti after their independence.
The mullato Haitians who had been given French education by their white fathers squabbled for the land and resources of Haiti.
The former slaves, the blacks, were reduced to rural farmers and because of the economic and political isolation that was imposed on the island by France, they succumbed to poverty.
In 1825 CE the French government demanded from Haiti a reparation price of 150 million gold francs for killing and displacing former slave owners in return for the easing of sanctions on the Island and recognition of its independence.
France’s intention was to bankrupt Haiti and to ensure that they had a bad aftermath to their successful rebellion against whites and the institution of slavery so as to discourage other places from following in their footsteps.
This money was still being demanded by the French until as recently as 1947 CE.
Through such measures the French have kept Haiti in a state of poverty to revenge their loss and humiliation during the slave rebellions.
Haiti remains poor to this day.
Crime and prostitution are rife on the island and the West still parades the Haitians as an example to discourage blacks from challenging white authority.