The Black Jacobins: The Haitian Revolution

In the late 1700’s slaves, who were the majority of the population in St. Domingue, were brought from Africa. These men and women were victims but they were not helpless.The Gens de Couleur fought for equal rights. Along with leaders like Toussaint L’Ouverture, a freed slave, lead the revolt as a general and later was the first governor and constitution writer of Haiti in 1804.The impact of the Haitian revolution was that Haitians proved that they could defeat Whites, inspired slave revolts in the Caribbean, and made whites afraid of their slaves. The French at the time of the Haitian revolution in 1791 had embarked on two years of their own revolution, and were fighting Britain and Spain. In The Black Jacobins, C.L.R. James explains how the slaves defeated, local whites, soldiers of the french monarchy, a Spanish invasion, a British expedition, and a French expedition. This “resulted in the establishment of the [black] state of Haiti which has lasted to this day.” “The transformation of slaves, trembling in hundreds before a single white man, into a people able to organise themselves and defeat the most powerful European nations of their day is one of the greatest epics of revolutionary struggle and achievement.” (C.L.R. James, “The Black Jacobins”). In the war the surpassing military abilities of the Haitians

“The revolution awakened black consciousness and black pride throughout the Atlantic world, but it caused great fear among whites and led many to tighten the grips they help on their slaves.” The increase in violence towards the slaves came from the threat Americans saw of their slaves hearing of the Haitian revolt. Although the Haitian revolt scared American slave masters and increased inflicted violence, the revolution would inspire the great accomplishment of further slave revolts freeing slaves from all over the