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Do not fill this in! ====Haitian Revolution (1791–1804)==== {{Main|Haitian Revolution}} [[File:Général Toussaint Louverture.jpg|thumb|upright|General Toussaint Louverture]] Inspired by the [[French Revolution]] of 1789 and principles of the [[rights of man]], the French settlers and free people of color pressed for greater political freedom and more [[civil rights]].<ref name="Bradt12"/> Tensions between these two groups led to conflict, as a militia of free-coloreds was set up in 1790 by [[Vincent Ogé]], resulting in his capture, torture and execution.<ref name="Encylopedia Britannica - Haiti"/> Sensing an opportunity, in August 1791 the first slave armies were established in northern Haiti under the leadership of [[Toussaint Louverture]] inspired by the Vodou ''houngan'' (priest) Boukman, and backed by the Spanish in Santo Domingo – soon a full-blown slave rebellion had broken out across the entire colony.<ref name="Encylopedia Britannica - Haiti"/> In 1792, the [[French First Republic|French]] government sent three commissioners with troops to re-establish control; to build an alliance with the ''[[gens de couleur]]'' and enslaved persons commissioners [[Léger-Félicité Sonthonax]] and [[Étienne Polverel]] abolished slavery in the colony.<ref name="Bradt12"/> Six months later, the [[National Convention]], led by [[Maximilien de Robespierre]] and the [[Jacobin Club|Jacobins]], endorsed [[abolition of slavery timeline|abolition]] and extended it to all the French colonies.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/291/ |title=Decree of the National Convention of 4 February 1794, Abolishing Slavery in all the Colonies |publisher=Chnm.gmu.edu |access-date=24 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110603234817/http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/291/ |archive-date=3 June 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The [[United States]], which was a new republic itself, oscillated between supporting or not supporting [[Toussaint Louverture]] and the emerging country of Haiti, depending on who was President of the US. Washington, who was a slave holder and isolationist, kept the United States neutral, although private US citizens at times provided aid to French [[Planter (plantation owner)|planters]] trying to put down the revolt. John Adams, a vocal opponent of slavery, fully supported the slave revolt by providing diplomatic recognition, financial support, munitions and warships (including the [[USS Constitution]]) beginning in 1798. This support ended in 1801 when Jefferson, another slave-holding president, took office and recalled the US Navy.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://history.state.gov/milestones/1784-1800/HaitianRev |title=1784–1800 – The United States and the Haitian Revolution |publisher=History.state.gov |access-date=24 July 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130920081517/http://history.state.gov/milestones/1784-1800/HaitianRev |archive-date=20 September 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/22/books/poles-in-haiti.html |title=Poles in Haiti |work = [[The New York Times]] |date=22 March 1987 |access-date=24 July 2013 |last=Joseph|first= Raymond A.|author-link=Raymond Joseph}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/john-adams-supports-toussaint-louverture-horrifies-jefferson/ |title=John Adams Supports Toussaint Louverture, Horrifies Jefferson|date=29 March 2017}}</ref> With slavery abolished, Toussaint Louverture pledged allegiance to France, and he fought off the British and Spanish forces who had taken advantage of the situation and invaded Saint-Domingue.<ref name="Latin America's Wars: Volume 1">{{cite book|last1=Scheina|first1=Robert L.|title=Latin America's Wars: Volume 1|date=2003|publisher=Potomac Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution|date=2009|publisher=[[Harvard University Press]]|page=182}}</ref> The Spanish were later forced to cede their part of the island to France under the terms of the [[Peace of Basel]] in 1795, uniting the island under one government. However, an insurgency against French rule broke out in the east, and in the west there was fighting between Louverture's forces and the free people of color led by [[André Rigaud]] in the [[War of the Knives]] (1799–1800).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www2.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/history/revolution/revolution3.htm |title=The Haitian Revolution of 1791–1803 |first=Bob |last=Corbett |publisher=Webster University}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Smucker|first=Glenn R.|at=Toussaint Louverture|url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/httoc.html|title=A Country Study: Haiti|editor=Richard A. Haggerty|publisher=Library of Congress Federal Research Division|date=December 1989}}</ref> The United States' support for the blacks in the war contributed to their victory over the mulattoes.<ref name=YPT/> More than 25,000 whites and free blacks left the island as refugees.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Magazine |first=Smithsonian |title=The History of the United States' First Refugee Crisis |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/history-united-states-first-refugee-crisis-180957717/ |access-date=10 June 2022 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en|quote=In spite of all this paranoia, however, South Carolina actually lifted its ban on foreign slaves in 1804, and all those who arrived from Saint-Domingue eventually settled there. According to Dessens, many were even welcomed quite warmly. This was especially true for the 8,000 or so of the 25,000 refugees who shared both skin color and a common religion with their American counterparts.}}</ref> [[File:Battle for Palm Tree Hill.jpg|thumb|Battle between [[Polish Legions (Napoleonic period)|Polish troops]] in French service and the [[Haitian Revolution|Haitian rebels]]. The majority of Polish soldiers eventually deserted the French army and fought alongside the Haitians.]] After Louverture created a separatist constitution and proclaimed himself governor-general for life, [[Napoléon Bonaparte]] in 1802 sent an expedition of 20,000 soldiers and as many sailors<ref>{{cite book|last=Frasier |first= Flora|title=Venus of Empire:The Life of Pauline Bonaparte|publisher=John Murray|date=2009}}</ref> under the command of his brother-in-law, [[Charles Leclerc (general, born 1772)|Charles Leclerc]], to reassert French control. The French achieved some victories, but within a few months most of their [[French Army|army]] had died from [[yellow fever]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://entomology.montana.edu/historybug/napoleon/yellow_fever_haiti.htm |title=The Haitian Debacle: Yellow Fever and the Fate of the French |publisher=Montana State University |access-date=24 July 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131207060224/http://entomology.montana.edu/historybug/napoleon/yellow_fever_haiti.htm |archive-date=7 December 2013 }}</ref> Ultimately more than 50,000 French troops died in an attempt to retake the colony, including 18 generals.<ref>{{cite news|author=Adam Hochschild |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/05/30/CMGKG6F3UV1.DTL |title=Birth of a Nation / Has the bloody 200-year history of Haiti doomed it to more violence? |work=San Francisco Chronicle |date=30 May 2004 |access-date=24 July 2013}}</ref> The French managed to capture Louverture, transporting him to France for trial. He was imprisoned at [[Fort de Joux]], where he died in 1803 of exposure and possibly [[tuberculosis]].<ref name="Farmer-LROB" /><ref name="Bradt13">Clammer, Paul (2016), ''Bradt Travel Guide – Haiti'', p. 13.</ref> [[File:Revenge taken by the Black Army for the Cruelties practised on them by the French.png|thumb|Haitians hanging French soldiers]] The enslaved persons, along with free {{Lang|fr|gens de couleur}} and allies, continued their fight for independence, led by generals [[Jean-Jacques Dessalines]], [[Alexandre Pétion]] and [[Henry Christophe]].<ref name="Bradt13"/> The rebels finally managed to decisively defeat the French troops at the [[Battle of Vertières]] on 18 November 1803, establishing the first nation ever to successfully gain independence through a slave revolt.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Jackson|first1=Maurice|last2=Bacon|first2=Jacqueline|editor1-last=Jackson |editor1-first=Maurice |editor2-last=Bacon |editor2-first=Jacqueline|chapter=Fever and Fret: The Haitian Revolution and African American Responses|date=2010|title=African Americans and the Haitian Revolution: Selected Essays and Historical Documents|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dZDcAAAAQBAJ&q=African%20American%20and%20the%20Haitian%20Revolution&pg=PT14 |access-date=10 October 2018 |publisher=Routledge |quote=...the momentous struggle that began in 1791 and yielded the first post-colonial independent black nation and the only nation to gain independence through slave rebellion.|isbn=978-1-134-72613-4}}</ref> Under the overall command of Dessalines, the Haitian armies avoided open battle, and instead conducted a successful guerrilla campaign against the Napoleonic forces, working with diseases such as yellow fever to reduce the numbers of French soldiers.<ref>C.L.R. James, ''Black Jacobins'' (London: Seckur & Warburg, 1938)</ref> Later that year France withdrew its remaining 7,000 troops from the island and Napoleon gave up his idea of re-establishing a North American empire, selling [[Louisiana (New France)]] to the [[United States]], in the [[Louisiana Purchase]].<ref name="Bradt13"/> Throughout the revolution, an estimated 20,000 French troops succumbed to yellow fever, while another 37,000 were [[killed in action]],<ref>{{cite web |title=The Haitian Revolution and the Louisiana Purchase |url=https://gazette.com/woodmenedition/jefferson-the-haitian-revolution-and-the-louisiana-purchase-get-out-of-town/article_e5b9a5de-88b2-11ea-9b22-1f1cf7020e1f.amp.html |website=The Gazette}}</ref> exceeding the total French soldiers killed in action across various 19th-century colonial campaigns in Algeria, Mexico, Indochina, Tunisia, and West Africa, which resulted in approximately 10,000 French soldiers killed in action combined.<ref>{{cite book |title=Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492–2015, 4th ed. | isbn=9780786474707 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8urEDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA199|quote=French losses from 1830–51 were 3,336 killed in battle and 92,329 died of wounds or from all other causes. Between 1830 and 1870, 411 French officers were killed and 1,360 were wounded. The toll for the ranks was an estimated 10,000 killed and 35,000 wounded in all French colonial campaigns. A few thousand from this number died in Mexico or Indochina, but the great bulk met their deaths in Algeria. Disease took an even greater toll. One estimate puts total French and Foreign Legion deaths from battle and disease for the entire century at 110,000. | last1=Clodfelter | first1=Micheal | date=23 May 2017 | publisher=McFarland }}</ref> The British sustained 100,000 casualties.<ref name=YPT>{{cite web |title=Haitian Revolution: A YPT Guide|url=https://www.youngpioneertours.com/haitian-revolution-ypt-guide/ |website=Young Pioneer Tours|date=7 March 2020 }}</ref> Additionally, 350,000 ex-enslaved Haitians died.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wilson|first1=Colin|last2=Wilson|first2=Damon|title=An End To Murder: Human beings have always been cruel, savage and murderous. Is all that about to change?|date=2015}}</ref> In the process, Dessalines became arguably the most successful military commander in the struggle against Napoleonic France.<ref>Christer Petley, ''White Fury: A Jamaican Slaveholder and the Age of REvolution'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), p. 182.</ref> 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