We look at the life of revolutionary leader Toussaint Louverture, confront the atrocities committed against the people of Haiti and the literal price they were forced to pay for their freedom. Essentially, the owners were OK with working their slaves to death, or punishing them with death, and buying more slaves. Posted by: [21] The Kongolese at 40% were the largest of the African ethnic groups represented amongst the slaves. Haiti was hell, but Haiti was rich". In this kind of situation, the last priority for food distribution is the slaves, and as a result, there was a large population of slaves that was not well-fed and mistreated. Starting in the 1730s, French engineers constructed complex irrigation systems to increase sugarcane production. [52], Though demanding freedom from slavery, the rebels did not demand independence from France at this point. [125] The affranchi lite, who continued to rule Haiti while the formidable Haitian army kept them in power. The mulattoes who returned to Saint-Domingue became the elite of the people of color. Two centuries ago, Haitians revolted against their French masters and declared independence. Here is an episode index for his fabulous The History of Rome Podcast, Supplemental: Sir Edward Hyde, First Earl of Clarendon, Supplemental: The Declaration of Independence, The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, The Patriotic Society for the Development [126] His chief motivator nonetheless was production, and to this aim he granted much freedom to the plantations' overseers. Then sugar was introduced. Mapping the Haitian Revolution A limited amount, he concludes, for slavery flourished in the western hemisphere for many more decades. Listen on Spotify Message. Initially, Duncan planned to limit his podcast to 12-15 episodes per revolution, but he ran over that self-imposed limit with the English Civil War and the American Revolution and decided to give up on it for the French Revolution, which ultimately ended up being 54 episodes (not counting supplemental episodes). Around that time, colonial legislations, concerned with this growing and strengthening population, passed discriminatory laws that required these freedmen to wear distinctive clothing and limited where they could live. [64] On 22 September 1793, Mole St. Nicolas, the main French naval base in Saint-Domingue, surrendered to the Royal Navy peacefully. [105] General Boudet himself was wounded and as the French dead and wounded started to pile up in the ditch, the French retreated. The gens de couleur looked like the grand blancs, they dressed like them, and for the most part they lived like them, but there were still restrictions on the work they could do, and even on the way that they could dress.The gens de couleur had a pretty good life, but they still wanted the rights and privileges of their planter parents. On 28 June, the squadron encountered a French convoy from Les Cayes off Mle-Saint-Nicolas, capturing one ship although the other escaped. The French planters were disappointed as they had hoped to regain power; Sonthonax was relieved, as he had twice refused ultimatums from Commodore John Ford to surrender Port-au-Prince. [84] Simcoe used the new British troops to push back the Haitians under Toussaint, but in a counter-offensive, Toussaint and Rigaud stopped the offensive. So, they abolished slavery for a little while so that the former slaves would fight the British and Spanish on their behalf, however they had no intention of allowing the slaves to be free. The biggest slave revolt in U.S. history was the 1811 German Coast uprising in Louisiana. He died months later in prison at Fort-de-Joux in the Jura Mountains. Production of sugar depended on extensive manual labor provided by enslaved Africans. 'The Greatest Heist In History': How Haiti Was Forced To Pay - NPR A Muddy Knees Media production for BBC Radio 4. [161] In the Caribbean, total casualties totaled approximately 162,000. [citation needed] Dessalines offered citizenship and assistance to slaves in Martinique and Guadeloupe so that they could start their own uprisings. Posted by: Many of the whites and free people of color who left Saint-Domingue for the United States settled in southern Louisiana, adding many new members to its French-speaking, mixed-race, and black populations. Accessed 25 March 2015. [105], The Haitians next tried to stop the French at a British-built fort up in the mountains called Crte--Pierrot, a battle that is remembered as a national epic in Haiti. They wanted to get out of the exclusive trade agreement that they had with France and sell their sugar to the highest bidder. "[9], Duncan began The History of Rome in 2007, after failing to find any good podcasts about ancient history. Reportedly, he also ordered the unwilling to take part in the killings, especially men of mixed-race, so that blame would not rest solely on the black population. The most powerful group was the grand blancs, or the Big Whites. These were the plantation owners and the elite. The end of the Haitian Revolution in 1804 marked the end of French colonialism on the island. In parallel to the killings, plundering and rape also occurred. The Southern province lagged in population and wealth because it was geographically separated from the rest of the colony. In addition, he led an invasion of neighboring Santo Domingo (December 1800), and freed the slaves there on 3 January 1801. The Code Noir required 2 1/2 pounds of manioc and either two pounds of salt beef or three pounds of fish every week, but generally most slaves only got a few potatoes and a little bit of water every day. Many of the free people of color, by contrast, were raised in French culture, had certain rights within colonial society, and generally spoke French and practiced Catholicism (with syncretic absorption of African religions. A small comment about the name of the colony. [106] Despite Bonaparte's attempt to keep his intention to restore slavery a secret, it was widely believed by both sides that was why the French had returned to Haiti, as a sugar plantation could only be profitable with slave labour. After a few decades of fighting, in 1697 the Spanish ceded the western part of the island to the French, who named their colony Saint-Domingue. You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post. [35], In July 2022, Duncan released, through his Revolutions podcast, a one-man table read of a script he created for a proposed Marquis de Lafayette TV show. Geggus points out that at least 3 of every 5 British troops sent there in 17911797 died of disease. [47] The long years of oppression by the planters had left many blacks with a hatred of all whites, and the revolt was marked by extreme violence from the very start. On 29 August 1793, Sonthonax proclaimed the abolition of slavery in the northern province. These gens de couleur tended to be educated and literate, and the men often served in the army or as administrators on plantations. "The Haitian revolution and the limit of freedom: defining citizenship in the revolutionary era". From that ceremony, they set out and attacked plantations, burn them down, and kill all of the white planters they came across. [8][9][10] The revolution represented the largest slave uprising since Spartacus' unsuccessful revolt against the Roman Republic nearly 1,900 years earlier,[11] and challenged long-held European beliefs about alleged black inferiority and about slaves' ability to achieve and maintain their own freedom. Like Jean Franois and Biassou, he initially fought for the Spanish crown. If caught, these runaway slaves would be severely and violently punished. The series covered the English Civil War, the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Haitian Revolution, Simon Bolivar and Gran Colombia, the July Revolution, the Revolutions of 1848, the Paris Commune, the Mexican Revolution, and finally the Russian Revolution, ending its run of narrative episodes in July 2022. He sent a general, who tricked Toussaint LOuverture, arrested him, and shipped him off to France where he eventually died in prison, but the revolution did not end. . And all of these groups were against the slaves. The revolution of African slaves brought many fears to colonies surrounding Haiti and the Caribbean. [83] Service in Saint-Domingue was extremely unpopular in the British Army owing to the terrible death toll caused by yellow fever. Revolutions also featured supplemental episodes, excluded from the normal count of episodes, and of varying length (compared to roughly half-hour normal episodes). I was wondering if you would cover the slave uprisings in other French colonies during the 1790s, especially the one in Guadeloupe (featuring Louis Delgres). As such, they were demanding their rights as Frenchmen which had been granted by the king. [124][125] The country, therefore, had to be rebuilt. Accessed 26 March 2015. "[13] As he had done with The History of Rome podcast, Duncan ran a series of tours to accompany the podcast which visited historical sites mentioned on the show. "So much was done in Haiti because of him. Barred from using the whip, many instead turned to lianes, which were thick vines abundant throughout the island, to persuade the laborers to keep working. Studies in the History of Political Thought, "Freedom at All Cost: Remembering History's Greatest Slave Rebellion", "Invade Haiti, Wall Street Urged. Revolutions Per Minute - Radio from the New York City Democratic Socialists of America. [114] Bonaparte, hearing that most of his army in Saint-Domingue had died of yellow fever and the French held only Port-au-Prince, Le Cap, and Les Cayes, sent about 20,000 reinforcements to Rochambeau. To realise this goal, Dessalines adopted the economic organisation of serfdom. [14] The death rate from yellow fever was such that at least 50% of the slaves from Africa died within a year of arriving, so while the white planters preferred to work their slaves as hard as possible, providing them only the bare minimum of food and shelter, they calculated that it was better to get the most work out of their slaves with the lowest expense possible, since they were probably going to die of yellow fever anyway. "[96] Yellow fever caused the most deaths. Revolutions aired from 15 September 2013 to 3 July 2022. The series' main narrative ended in July 2022. [24] It entered the New York Times best seller list Hardcover Non-Fiction on the eighth place during its first week. [45] In the south, beginning in September, thirteen thousand slaves and rebels led by Romaine-la-Prophtesse, based in Trou Coffy, took supplies from and burned plantations, freed slaves, and occupied (and burned) the area's two major cities, Logne and Jacmel. [110][111][112] Saint-Domingue was a society seething with hatred, with white colonists and black slaves frequently coming into violent conflict. [32] Duncan has also expressed interest in developing a TV series based on the biography, having drafted a pilot script for the proposed show. [13] Many freedmen were also artisans and overseers, or domestic servants in the plantation houses. Also Place Hotel de Ville. [119] One of Rochambeau's ships was almost wrecked while leaving the harbour, but was saved by a British lieutenant acting alone, who not only rescued the 900 people on board, but also refloated the ship. [106], On 25 April 1802, the situation suddenly changed when Christophe defected, along with much of the Haitian Army, to the French. The podcast is divided into seasons, with each season focusing on a particular revolution. 4.01- Saint-Domingue - Revolutions | Podcast on Spotify Napoleon then turned his attention towards France's European enemies such as Great Britain and Prussia. Revolutions Podcast by Mike Duncan - S4: Haitian Revolution - YouTube In April 2021, with Duncan's work on the book completed, he and his family returned to the United States. Sylvia Musto, "Portraiture, Revolutionary Identity and Subjugation: Anne-Louis Girodet's Citizen Belley". ), The Impact of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World (University of South Carolina Press, 2001), Malick Ghachem, The Old Regime and the Haitian Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2012), C. L. R. James, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint LOuverture and the San Domingo Revolution (first published 1938; Penguin, 2001), Madison Smartt Bell, Toussaint Louverture: A Biography (Vintage, 2007), Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (Beacon Press, 1997). However, this isolation allowed freed slaves to find profit in trade with Jamaica, and they gained power and wealth here. In addition to all of these groups, there were the slaves, who were by far the majority of the population. In response, Napoleon Bonaparte dispatched a large expeditionary force of French soldiers and warships to the island, led by Bonaparte's brother-in-law Charles Leclerc, to restore French rule. [72] After arriving in the West Indies in February 1794, Grey chose to conquer Martinique, Saint Lucia, and Guadeloupe. Then they would come back to Haiti and own plantations and slaves of their own. He also predicted a general slave revolt in the colonies, saying that there were signs of "the impending storm". Many plantations had large concentrations of slaves from a particular region of Africa, and it was therefore somewhat easier for these groups to maintain elements of their culture, religion, and language. Guest Natalie Arsenault from UTs Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies discusses the Haitian Revolution and its significance within the narrative of the political revolutions of the 18th century. In the end of 1798, Maitland withdrew the last of his forces from Mole St Nicholas, as Toussaint took command of the fortress. The second group were free people of color, or gens de couleur libres, who were usually mixed-race (sometimes referred to as mulattoes), being of both African and French descent. He managed to force the regime to open up," Montas said. The Historical, Political And Social Conditions That Led Haiti To - NPR 17911804 slave revolt in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, Haitian resistance and scorched-earth tactics, Rebellion against reimposition of slavery, Dessalines and Ption join Haitian forces, Influence on other abolitionist and post-colonial movements, Relationship between the French and Haitian Revolutions.
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