The Haitian Revolution, the largest and most successful rebellion of enslaved Africans in the Western Hemisphere, constitutes a landmark in the history of abolition of slavery. It precipitated the end of slavery not only in Saint-Domingue but in all French colonies.
These trailblazers of freedom, who were forcibly and violently transported from West Africa and Central Africa and enslaved, rose up as pioneers in the defense of human rights. They initiated the rebellion in 1791 and by 1804 they had succeeded in defeating Napoleon’s armies, thus ending not just slavery but French control over the colony.
On Jan. 1, 1804, after over a decade of fighting against French enslavement and colonisation, the French colony of Saint-Domingue became the Independent Republic of Haiti.
More than 300 years after Christopher Columbus landed in Hispaniola, destroyed its native population and introduced the barbaric and horrendous practice of the legal trafficking in human cargo, the island witnessed the birth of the independent Republic of Haiti.
The Haitian Declaration of Independence simply stated:
We have dared to be free, let us be thus by ourselves and for ourselves.
Upon declaring independence, Haiti claimed a singular place in world history by becoming the first modern Black Republic in the world and the first independent nation in the Caribbean.
The Haitian Revolution was transformative on a global scale. It highlighted the horrors, atrocities and tragic abuses of slavery; disrupted the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, the inhumane traffic in human beings from Africa to European colonies and countries in the Americas; and offered a powerful example of collective action and hope of emancipation for enslaved people around the world.
Haitians accomplished what many people thought was impossible. Inspired by the courage and the bravery of the Haitians, colonised nations began to seek for independence. Haiti was a leading force in the liberation of many Latin American countries including Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Ecuador and Peru. Haiti also provided assistance to Greece in its fight for independence.
Haiti's early history is characterised by remarkable economic output. On the eve of the Haitian Revolution, Saint Domingue had become the most lucrative colony on earth. Its economy was built by the labour of about 800,000 enslaved African men and women who worked the vast plantations, and it was the world's leading producer of sugar and coffee and among the global leaders in indigo, cacao and cotton.
Yet today Haiti, cradle of the liberation struggles against slavery and colonialism in the American continent and the first independent republic in Latin America and the Caribbean, is considered the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
Why or how did things evolve this way?
Haitians have a proverb, “Dèyè mòn gen mon” which means behind the mountain there are mountains.
For the Haitians those mountains or challenges have come by way of the “independence debt” to French slave owners, foreign-led coups and occupations, corrupt and oppressive puppet regimes, protracted socio-political crisis, deteriorating economic conditions, rising food insecurity and malnutrition, waterborne disease outbreaks, the Haitian-Dominican migration situation and high vulnerability to natural disasters.
· On the night that spanned August 22 and 23, 1791, an insurrection broke out on the island of Saint-Domingue that, under the leadership of Toussaint Louverture, was to culminate in the independence of Haiti in 1804. Gifted with natural military genius, Toussaint Louverture organised an effective guerrilla war against the island's colonial population. This insurrection is considered as the first victory of enslaved people against their oppressors in human history.
· Arrested on 7 June 1802, Toussaint Louverture was deported to Fort Joux in France where he died on 7 April 1803, but his successors continued the revolution until 1804 and fought and inflicted a crushing defeat on Napoleon’s armies.
· During the wars that comprised the Haitian Revolution from 1791 to 1803, white enslavers fled Saint-Domingue to other islands in the Caribbean and to North America namely Louisiana and South Carolina, taking with them the Africans they had enslaved. Their stories and the news from the revolt made the white enslavers pass new "black codes".
· Women were instrumental at every level in the time preceding and during the Haitian Revolution. Their participation included that of spies, nurses as well as active involvement in combat. Some of these legendary women include: Suzanne Bélair known as Sanité Bélair, Marie Sainte Dédée Bazile, Marie-Louise Coidavid, Catherine Flon, Cécile Fatiman, Marie-Claire Heureuse Félicité, Marie-Jeanne Lamartiniére, Suzanne Simone Baptiste Louverture and Victoria Montou.
· Haitians claimed their independence in a heroic and Herculean 13-year war against France, Britain and Spain.
· On January 1, 1804, Jean-Jacques Dessalines declared the nation independent and renamed it Haiti. Haiti thus emerged as the first modern Black Republic in the world.
· Le Nèg Mawon (translated Black Maroon in English and Nègre Marron in French) is a formidably powerful symbol that commemorates the landmark Haitian revolution. The statue was created by Albert Mangonès (1917-2002), a renowned Haitian architect, sculptor, and founder of the Haitian Institute for the Protection of National Heritage (ISPAN) in 1968. Le Nèg Mawon is shown with the left leg extended with a broken shackle at the ankle denoting the hard-fought freedom; a machete in the right hand showing the strength to fight; and a conch shell, which was often used as a trumpet to assemble people, at the lips. What makes Le Nèg Mawon even more significant is the fact that it survived the tragic and devastating earthquake of January 12, 2010 completely intact. Even as major buildings like the presidential palace crumbled all around it, Le Nèg Mawon stood firm and emerged unscathed - just like the Haitian people have continued to remain strong, resilient and unbreakable in the face of adversity for centuries.
· Haiti was surrounded by hostile slave colonies and Haiti created the first haven of freedom for enslaved Africans who escaped on the continent. Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the first leader of independent Haiti, stipulated in the 1805 Constitution that any African who set foot on Haitian soil would automatically gain freedom, citizenship, shelter, and the protection of the Haitian State.
· Haiti’s independence was viewed as a threat by all slave-owning countries including the United States. In October 1779, a force of more than 500 Haitian soldiers, les Chasseurs-Volontaires de Saint-Domingue fought in the Battle of Savannah in coastal Georgia, played a significant role in the Revolutionary War and provided support to the founding of the United States. Yet there was no sign of gratitude from the United States for the Savannah heroism. When Haiti successfully defeated the French in 1804, the slave-owning United States refused to recognise its sovereignty for many years because it regarded the free Black Republic as a threat. Instead, the United States supported the French against the Haitians and have been hostile or, at best, indifferent to their Caribbean neighbours during most of their history. Americans also continued to enslave Negroes six decades after Haitian independence.
· Independent Haiti faced diplomatic and economic isolation. The slave-owning West took France’s side against Haiti and no foreign nation recognised Haiti’s sovereignty or established diplomatic relations with her.
· In 1825, twenty-one years after winning its independence against all odds, French enslavers demanded compensation and Charles X demanded Haiti pay an "independence debt" of 150m gold francs, 10 times Haiti's annual revenue. Thus Haiti, a republic formed and led by Black people who had revolted against the institution of slavery, had little choice but to accede to France’s reparation demands, which were delivered in 1825 to Port-au-Prince by a fleet of heavily armed warships threatening to re-invade and re-enslave the Haitian State.
· Haiti's hand was forced, and she began paying enormous “reparations” to the French slaveholders it had overthrown. Furthermore, France demanded to buy all Haitian products at a 50% discount. For over a century, Haiti was required to finance the debt, through loans from French and American banks that levied draconian taxes and interests on the loans.
· By complying with an ultimatum that amounted to extortion, Haiti gained immunity from French military invasion, relief from political and economic isolation and a crippling debt that took 122 years to pay off. Thanks to voluntary contributions from Haiti’s citizens, most of whom were desperately poor, that debt was finally settled in 1947. But decades of making regular payments had rendered the Haitian government chronically insolvent, helping to create a pervasive climate of instability from which the country still has not recovered.
· When Haitians declared their independence on January 1, 1804, they had every right to claim reparations from the colonisers who had built an empire on more than a century of stolen labour. France was, however, convinced that it was the Haitians who had stolen the property of slave owners by refusing to continue working for free.
· The "independence debt" illegitimately forced a people who had won their independence in a successful revolution to pay again for the freedom.
· The "independence debt" was illegal in 1825 since slavery was technically outlawed when the original demand for compensation was made.
· In 2004, a lawsuit launched by Haiti to demand repayment of the money France had extorted from Haiti was abandoned when France backed the overthrow of the government.
· To this day, France has refused to pay Haiti back the money it illegally demanded for over a century.
· Over the years, this repayment of “independence debt” to their former slave owners, along with foreign-led coups and occupations, left the Haitian economy crippled and impoverished.
· Haiti is one of the clearest examples of the disastrous consequences of colonialism and neo-colonialism, of the unjust and exclusionary international order, and of the continued interventionism characterising its history.
· The tragedy of Haiti is a history of isolation, ostracism, and interventions. It is also a history of betrayal by an unscrupulous ruling class more interested in conspicuous consumption and personal wealth than nation building. At the same time, it is a history of demands for freedom, human rights, and human dignity, not only for Haitians, but also for all citizens of African descent.
To our Haitian brothers and sisters, we say: “Dèyè mòn, se espwa” meaning behind the mountain there is hope.
Through the Haitian Revolution, Toussaint L’Ouverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Alexandre Pétion, Henri Christophe and many other Haitian pioneers of freedom inspired antislavery movements and action around the world and became a beacon of hope and freedom to millions of African children, women and men during one of the darkest periods in our history. Still today, Haiti remains a source of inspiration and a torch-bearer to all.
The fact that hope of the Haitians was crushed but not destroyed despite centuries of oppression, political instability and economic hardship is an immense tribute to their spirit and resilience and their desire to control their own destiny.
Though the mountains remaining in Haiti are enormous and often seem almost impossible to overcome, there is hope for a stronger economy providing sustainable jobs; hope for better infrastructure on every level; hope for investment in education, health care, water and sanitation, electricity, and transportation; hope for political stability and a government that truly works for its own people.
Solidarity with Haitian Children: On June 10, 2021 and June 10, 2022, Children's Day in Haiti, we extended a hand of solidarity to Haitian children by organising a Child Feeding Programme. The videos titled Solidarity with Haitian Children 2021 and Solidarity with Haitian Children 2022 are available on our YouTube channel.
Transatlantic Slave Trade: In an effort to pay homage to and honour the sacrifices made by our forefathers and foremothers who fought so valiantly for the abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (the successful Haitian revolution of 1804 and the countless shipboard insurrections and revolts against enslavement including the Maroons) and also to honour the memory of the millions of unknown souls who suffered, died and have now been lost to history, we published a video titled Transatlantic Slave Trade on International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, August 23, 2019. #WeWillNeverForget
The Transatlantic Slave Trade video is available on our YouTube channel.
Bunmi Awoyinfa
House of Mercy Children's Home Lagos, Nigeria (HOM) is a grassroots NGO focusing on child hunger, child poverty, child homelessness, child illiteracy and emergency aid to children in crisis.
While attempting to mitigate the impact of engineered poverty on our beneficiaries through our programmes, we also consider it a matter of social justice to address the root causes of the problems of Africa and propose suitable and efficient solutions.
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