Haiti became the first free black republic in the world.
By Matthew Vree and Alison Satake
During his first trip to the New World in 1492, Christopher Columbus made several landfalls throughout the Caribbean, including on the island now known as Haiti and the Dominican Republic. He dubbed the land Hispaniola, or Little Spain, and it became the first outpost of the Spanish empire and a gateway to the rest of the Caribbean.
The island, which had come to be known as Santo Domingo, lost its place as the preeminent Spanish colony in the New World during the middle of the 16th century. The conquest of New Spain (Mexico) and the lack of mineral resources led to its neglect. By the end of the 17th century, Spain had ceded control of the western part of the island to the French, who called the area Saint-Domingue. Renewed interest, however, by the French caused the island to prosper, and by the end of the 18th century, Saint-Domingue produced about 60 percent of the world’s coffee and about 40 percent of the sugar imported by France and Britain.
Essential to the productivity of Saint-Domingue was its extensive slaveholding system, which was said to have been particularly cruel and abusive. At the peak of the island’s prosperity, the slave population totaled at least 500,000. (By comparison, only 32,000 whites and 28,000 free blacks lived on the island.) At the same time, violent conflicts between white colonists and bands of runaway slaves, called Maroons, were common. The Maroons entrenched themselves in the mountains and forests and, as their numbers grew into the thousands, began hit-and-run raids and attacks on the colony.
Their guerrilla style lacked organization and leadership, though, until 1791, when a group of former slaves led in part by Toussaint Louverture organized a full-fledged uprising that toppled the colony — the first successful slave revolt in history. While the initial uprising was finally quelled, the events set in motion what would become the Haitian Revolution.
Over the next six years, Toussaint’s tactical skill and charismatic leadership allowed him to take control over the entire island. A constitution approved by the new Colonial Assembly in 1801 granted Toussaint the title of “governor-general-for-life.” His reign and the freedom of the island were brief, however, as France’s Napoleon Bonaparte dispatched a large number of troops to wrest control of the island in 1802. Outnumbered and outmaneuvered, Toussaint finally surrendered on May 5, 1802, with the condition that there would be no return to slavery. Though France assured Toussaint that he would be allowed to retire quietly, he was instead captured and sent to the frigid dungeon of Fort-de-Joux in France, where he died of pneumonia less than a year later.
After seeing Napoleon restore slavery to neighboring Martinique, Toussaint’s followers continued to fight against France. And when war between France and Britain began again in Europe during 1803 — forcing Napoleon to pull back his troops — Toussaint’s army, led by one of his generals, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, overran the remaining French. In 1804, the country renamed itself Haiti, which means “mountainous,” and declared its independence, with Dessalines as leader. Haiti became the first free black republic in the world, the first independent state in the Caribbean and the second independent state in the Western Hemisphere after the United States.
Originally published by PBS, republished with permission for educational, non-commercial purposes.