Haiti Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ====French rule (1625–1804)==== {{Main|Saint-Domingue|French West Indies}} France received the western third and subsequently named it Saint-Domingue, the French equivalent of ''[[Captaincy General of Santo Domingo|Santo Domingo]]'', the Spanish colony on [[Hispaniola]].<ref name="firstcolony">{{cite web |url=http://countrystudies.us/dominican-republic/3.htm |title=Dominican Republic – The first colony |access-date= 19 June 2006 |work=Country Studies |publisher=[[Library of Congress]]; [[Federal Research Division]]}}</ref> The French set about creating sugar and coffee plantations, worked by vast numbers of those enslaved imported from [[Africa]], and Saint-Domingue grew to become their richest colonial possession,<ref name="Bradt11"/><ref name="Encylopedia Britannica - Haiti"/> generating 40% of France’s foreign trade and doubling the wealth generation of all of England’s colonies, combined.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Walter E. Kretchik |chapter=1. Haitian Culture and Military Power |date=2016 |language=en |page=6 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |quote=the French colony’s seven thousand plantations to produce 40 percent of France’s foreign trade, nearly double the production of all British colonies combined |title=Eyewitness to Chaos: Personal Accounts of the Intervention in Haiti, 1994}}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> The French settlers were outnumbered by enslaved persons by almost 10 to 1.<ref name="Bradt11"/> According to the 1788 Census, Haiti's population consisted of nearly 25,000 Europeans, 22,000 free coloreds and 700,000 Africans in slavery.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Coupeau| first=Steeve|title=The History of Haiti|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=tA-XfYZFNvkC&pg=PA18|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=2008|page=18|isbn=978-0-313-34089-5}}</ref> In contrast, by 1763 the white population of [[New France|French Canada]], a far larger territory, had numbered only 65,000.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/QuebecHistory/encyclopedia/ImmigrationHistoryofCanada.htm |title=Immigration History of Canada |publisher=Faculty.marianopolis.edu |access-date=24 July 2013}}</ref> In the north of the island, those enslaved were able to retain many ties to African cultures, religion and language; these ties were continually being renewed by newly imported Africans. Some West Africans in slavery held on to their traditional [[Haitian Vodou|Vodou]] beliefs by secretly syncretizing it with Catholicism.<ref name="Encylopedia Britannica - Haiti"/> The French enacted the ''[[Code Noir]]'' ("Black Code"), prepared by [[Jean-Baptiste Colbert]] and ratified by [[Louis XIV]], which established rules on slave treatment and permissible freedoms.<ref name="Bradt12">Clammer, Paul (2016), ''Bradt Travel Guide – Haiti'', p. 12.</ref> Saint-Domingue has been described as one of the most brutally efficient slave colonies; at the end of the eighteenth century it was supplying two-thirds of Europe's tropical produce while one-third of newly imported Africans died within a few years.<ref name="Farmer-LROB">{{cite web |last=Farmer |first= Paul | title=Who removed Aristide? |access-date=19 February 2010 |date=15 April 2004 |url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n08/farm01_.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080608222428/http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n08/farm01_.html |archive-date=8 June 2008 }}</ref> Many enslaved persons died from diseases such as [[smallpox]] and [[typhoid fever]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kiple |first= Kenneth F. | title = The Caribbean Slave: A Biological History | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=veMLoyrX0BEC| publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 2002 | page = 145 | isbn = 978-0-521-52470-4 }}</ref> They had low [[birth rate]]s,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6K-DocgDY6gC&pg=PA119|title=Sugar Island Slavery in the Age of Enlightenment: The Political Economy of the Caribbean World|author-link1=Arthur Stinchcombe|last=Stinchcombe|first=Arthur L.|date=11 December 1995|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-2200-3|language=en}}</ref> and there is evidence that some women [[abortion|aborted]] fetuses rather than give birth to children within the bonds of [[slavery]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_z17AAAAMAAJ|title=Journal of Haitian Studies|date=2001|publisher=Haitian Studies Association|pages=67|language=en}}</ref> The colony's environment also suffered, as forests were cleared to make way for plantations and the land was overworked so as to extract maximum profit for French plantation owners.<ref name="Encylopedia Britannica - Haiti"/> [[File:Fire in Saint-Domingo 1791, German copper engraving.jpg|thumb|Saint-Domingue [[Slave rebellion|slave revolt]] in 1791]] As in its [[Louisiana (New France)|Louisiana colony]], the [[New France|French colonial]] government allowed some rights to [[free people of color]] ({{Lang|fr|gens de couleur}}), the [[mixed-race]] descendants of European male colonists and African enslaved females (and later, mixed-race women).<ref name="Bradt11"/> Over time, many were released from slavery and they established a separate [[social class]]. White French [[Creole peoples|Creole]] fathers frequently sent their mixed-race sons to [[France]] for their education. Some men of color were admitted into the military. More of the free people of color lived in the south of the island, near [[Port-au-Prince]], and many intermarried within their community.<ref name="Bradt11"/> They frequently worked as artisans and tradesmen, and began to own some property, including enslaved persons of their own.<ref name="Encylopedia Britannica - Haiti"/><ref name="Bradt11"/> The free people of color petitioned the [[New France|colonial]] government to expand their rights.<ref name="Bradt11"/> The brutality of slave life led many people in bondage to escape to mountainous regions, where they set up their own autonomous communities and became known as [[Haitian Maroon|maroons]].<ref name="Encylopedia Britannica - Haiti"/> One maroon leader, [[François Mackandal]], led a rebellion in the 1750s; however, he was later captured and executed by the French.<ref name="Bradt11"/> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page