Toussaint And The Haitian Revolution

Francois Dominique Toussaint was a leader of the independence movement in Haiti. When France declared war on Spain in 1792, Toussaint joined the Spanish forces as a mercenary, and this he did because the thought the French wanted to defend slavery. In 1794, the Convention government ended slavery in France. He thought that he had to come back to the side of France. He fought his way out. In 1799, the French government chose him to be Governor General. In his capacity, he imported 30,000 guns and ships to eradicate the British. He became the leader of French forces. Known as being the first governor of a colony, Toussaint L'Ouverture was a very important man when it came to the success of the Haitian Revolution. He trained slaves along with

This speaks to the ratio of blacks to whites in St. Domingue which was greatly influenced by the colonies production as they needed a large amount of slaves which was quite successful when it came to production. They helped to produce goods for markets across the world. Sugar, indigo, cotton, molasses, coffee and cocoa were some of the produce that was in really high demand. As a result, a large labour force was needed to work and uphold the production and consequently, the surplus resources. In the years from 1764 to 1771, the amount of slaves that were imported annually, increased greatly each time. The amount of Africans ranged from 10,000 to 15,000. In St. Domingue, more than 66% of about 500,000 slaves were born in Africa. Due to this imbalance in St. Domingue, it made it more likely for the revolution to begin. Due to the imbalance in the ratio of blacks to whites, the slaves developed close relationships with their kind. Some Africans were taken from their tribes (eg. Ashanti) and made an even closer relationship because of their familiarity with each other and the inhumane conditions they all went through. It would not have been typical to see Africans being close friends with planters, their backgrounds are different and they

Another leader that helped for the success was Jean Jacques Dessalines. He was a slave born in Africa. Dessalines and other leaders were the people who were in a battle with the French. They were the fighters. He joined Jean-Francois Papillon and Geroges Biassou to train in the mountains of St. Domingue. At this time, he was also training some runaway slaves. Dessalines, though illiterate, was a extremely fast learner. Leaders in the revolution used guerilla warfare to train the blacks. After a couple of years, due to his fighting skills, he became a