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By the early 17th century the Saint-Domingue (modern day Haiti) was a slave society with the majority of the population enslaved. [1] In response to the conditions of slavery, the ideals of the French Revolution, and the disproportion amount of enslaved to free people, Haiti was the site of a slave revolt that became the Haitian Revolution.
The Southern slave states held a majority in Congress and, afraid of encouraging slave revolts, blocked this; Haiti was quickly recognized (along with other progressive measures, such as ending slavery in the District of Columbia), after these legislators left Washington in 1861, their states having declared their secession.
The Slaves Who Defeated Napoleon: Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian War of Independence 1801–1804. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: The University of Alabama Press. ISBN 978-0-8173-1732-4. Julius, Kevin C. (2004). The abolitionist decade, 1829-1838: a year-by-year history of early events in the antislavery movement.
Other historians say the Haitian Revolution influenced slave rebellions in the U.S. as well as in British colonies. The biggest slave revolt in U.S. history was the 1811 German Coast uprising in Louisiana. This slave rebellion was put down and the punishment the slaves received was so severe that no contemporary news reports about it exist. [152]
The most important was Saint Domingue, which had 500,000 slaves, in which 32,000 were whites, and 28,000 free black people (which included both black and mulatto). Some free black people owned slaves in Haiti. [4] The slave system in Saint-Domingue was considered quite harsh, with high levels of both mortality and violence.
From its founding Haiti has been beset by violence, foreign manipulation and political upheaval. Jovenel Moïse thought he could break the mold. He couldn’t.
In declaring Haiti an independent country, Dessalines also confirmed the abolition of slavery in the new country. Haiti became the first country in the Americas to permanently abolish slavery. [ 28 ] [ page needed ] Dessalines tried to keep the sugar industry and plantations running and producing without slavery.
The white-supremacist ideology that justified slavery could not accept a stable, prosperous Haiti founded by self-emancipated slaves, human-rights lawyers write. France demanded crippling payments.