The Spanish controlled the Island of Hispaniola (or as they called it, “Santo Domingo”) from whence it was established. They focused on settling the Eastern side of the island, leaving the western side of Santo Domingo available to settlement by French buccaneers. The buccaneers had originally settled on the Ile de la Tortue (Tortuga), and expanded to the mainland of Santo Domingo (aka Hispaniola/Grande Terre). The Western side of the island became known as Saint-Domingue, and was officially given to the French in the Treaty of Ryswick (1697), which ended the Nine Year's War (Louis XIV's push to expand and cement his Kingdom).
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| Treaty of Ryswick |
Things got organized by men among the buccaneers such as Bertrand d'Orgeron, who recruited many families to Saint Domingue under the pretense of economical prosperity through agriculture, more specifically, in sugar and tobacco. This created the need for irrigation systems, and of course, as stated in the previous blog, need for extensive man-power.
This brings us to one of the most important pieces of legislature in Saint-Domingue history: The Code Noir.
The 1685 “Code Noir” was a 60-article document inspired by the French Minister of Finances, Jean-Baptiste Colbert.
Colonists were well-aware of the fact that they were outnumbered by slaves, and hoped for some kind of legal structure to prevent any sort of rebellion, which -at any scale- would have been difficult to handle.
The articles were ratified by Louis XIV, and contained instructions as to religion (namely, intolerance for anyone -free or not- to practice anything other than Catholicism), treatment of slaves (in the case of insubordination, etc.), restrictions upon slaves (for example, they were not allowed to bear arms, or to sell products they farmed), and rights of freemen.
Blatant disregard for the Code (on the part of both whites and blacks) created an environment of conflict, and Saint- Domingue maintained its high slave-mortality rate. Local landowners began to take matters into their own hands, passing their own restrictions and inflicting punishments of their own jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, in continental France, new documents had been drawn up as a result of the French Revolution. Documents such as, “The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen,” contained the phrases, “liberty...and resistance to oppression,” which surely, inspired the actions of slaves in the coming Haitian Revolution. Freemen of Saint-Domingue educated themselves and other on such ideas.
These teachings came to fruition on August 21st of 1791.
Slaves were led into action by leaders of both the military and the religious persuasions. White plantation owners and their families were so outnumbered, that they were very easily overcome by the violence. Some owners were fortunate enough to be warned by their slaves of the impending attacks, but most were brutally, and fatally effected. Thousands of whites died, and plantations were pillaged; burned to the ground.
In an attempt to preserve the French economical interest in the island, the French Assembly sent 6,000 soldiers onto the isle. The Spanish joined the side of the slaves, and then, the British arrived on the island. Once that happened, some slaves decided to fight for the French, provided that all of the slaves would be granted their freedom. French Civil Commissioner (and abolitionist), Leger-Felicite Sonthonax declared that this would be the case if the French found victory in the battle for the possession of Saint-Domingue. A fore-runner in this group of slaves was Toussaint L'Ouverture.
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| Toussaint L'Ouverture |
Like most, he was a former slave who had originally fought for the Spanish. Under his command, the British expeditionary forces were defeated, and by his hand, (as well as the hands of a few French generals) the slaves were freed on January 3rd or 1801.
L'Ouverture created the Saint-Domingue constitution, which- among other things- claimed that he would be governor for life. When Napoleon heard of this, he sent an army (led by Charles Leclerq). L'Ouverture was betrayed by his closest allies (namely Jean-Jacques Dessalines), and was captured. He was shipped to France, and died in prison.
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| Jean-Jacques Dessalines |
Unbeknownst to L'Ouverture's former allies, Napoleon was intent upon resorting slavery. When Dessalines found out, he deflected back to his original side. On the first day of 1804, -after a trying battle against the French colonial army- Dessalines declared Saint-Domingue's independence, renaming it Haiti.
Garrigus, John."Before Haiti: Race and Citizens in Saint-Domingue." [New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002].
http://www.hrcr.org/docs/frenchdec.html Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/335/ The Code Noir
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