francois dominique toussaint - louverture led the slave revolt in saint domingue.
who led the slave revolt in saint domingue?
francois dominique toussaint - louverture
raynal's prediction came true on the night of 21 august 1791, when the slaves of saint domingue rose in revolt; thousands of slaves attended a secret vodou (voodoo) ceremony as a tropical storm came in - the lighting and the thunder was taken as auspicious omens - and later that night, the slaves began to kill their masters and plunged the colony into civil war. the signal to begin the revolt was given by dutty boukman, a high priest of vodou and leader of the maroon slaves, and cecile fatiman during a religious ceremony at bois caïman on the night of 14 august. within the next ten days, slaves had taken control of the entire northern province in an unprecedented slave revolt. whites kept control of only a few isolated, fortified camps. the slaves sought revenge on their masters through "pillage, rape, torture, mutilation, and death". the long years of oppression by the slave masters had left many blacks with a hatred of all whites, and the revolt was marked by extreme violence from the very start. the masters and mistresses were dragged from their beds to be killed, and the heads of french children were placed on spikes that were carried at the front of the rebel columns.
haitian revolution
meanwhile, in 1793, france declared war on great britain. the "grands blancs" in saint domingue, unhappy with sonthonax, arranged with great britain to declare british sovereignty over the colony, believing that the british would maintain slavery. the british prime minister, william pitt the younger believed that the success of the slave revolt in saint domigue would inspire slave revolts in the british caribbean colonies. he thought that taking saint domingue, the richest of the french colonies, would be a useful bargaining chip to have when the peace negotiations began to end the war, and in the interim, occupying saint domingue would mean diverting its great wealth into the british treasury. the american journalist james perry notes that the great irony of the british campaign in haiti was that it ended as a complete debacle, costing the british treasury millions of pounds and the british military thousands upon thousands of dead, all for nothing.
haitian revolution