The division of Hispaniola (territory of Spain). The border
that divides the Island on the map, is the border agreed between France and Spain in the Treaty of Aranjuez of 1777'''. At first, the entire island of Hispaniola belonged to Spain, but the French managed to seize the
western part of the island thanks to the
Devastations of Osorio (1605–1606). When
Christopher Columbus took possession of the island in 1492, he named it
Insula Hispana, meaning "the Spanish island" in
Latin. As Spain conquered new regions on the mainland of the Americas (
Spanish Main), its interest in Hispaniola waned, and the colony's population grew slowly. By the early 17th century, the island and its smaller neighbors, notably Tortuga, had become regular stopping points for
Caribbean pirates. In 1606, the king of Spain ordered all inhabitants of Hispaniola to move close to Santo Domingo, to avoid interaction with pirates. Rather than securing the island, however, this resulted in French, English and Dutch pirates establishing bases on the now-abandoned north and west coasts of the island. French
buccaneers established a settlement on the island of Tortuga in 1625 before going to Grande Terre (the mainland). At first they survived by pirating ships, eating wild cattle and hogs, and selling hides to traders of all nations. Although the Spanish destroyed the buccaneers' settlements several times, on each occasion they returned, drawn by the abundance of natural resources: hardwood trees, wild hogs and cattle, and fresh water. The settlement on Tortuga was officially established in 1659 under the commission of
King Louis XIV. In 1665, French colonization of the islands of
Hispaniola and Tortuga entailed slavery-based plantation agricultural activity such as growing coffee and cattle farming. It was officially recognized by
King Louis XIV. Spain tacitly recognized the French presence in the western third of the island in the 1697
Treaty of Ryswick; the Spanish deliberately omitted direct reference to the island from the treaty, but they were never able to reclaim this territory from the French. The economy of Saint-Domingue became focused on slave-based agricultural plantations. Saint-Domingue's Black population quickly increased. They followed the example of neighboring Caribbean colonies in coercive treatment of the slaves. More cattle and slave agricultural holdings, coffee plantations and spice plantations were implemented, as well as fishing, cultivation of cocoa, coconuts, and snuff. Saint-Domingue quickly came to overshadow the previous colony in both wealth and population. Nicknamed the "Pearl of the Antilles," Saint-Domingue became the richest and most prosperous French colony in the West Indies, cementing its status as an important port in the Americas for goods and products flowing to and from France and Europe. Thus, the income and the taxes from slave-based sugar production became a major source of the French budget. Among the first buccaneers was
Bertrand d'Ogeron (1613–1676), who played a big part in the settlement of Saint-Domingue. He encouraged the planting of tobacco, which turned a population of buccaneers and freebooters, who had not acquiesced to royal authority until 1660, into a sedentary population. D'Ogeron also attracted many colonists from Martinique and Guadeloupe, including Jean Roy, Jean Hebert and his family, and Guillaume Barre and his family, who were driven out by the land pressure which was generated by the extension of the sugar plantations in those colonies. But in 1670, shortly after
Cap-Français (later
Cap-Haïtien) had been established, the crisis of tobacco intervened and a great number of places were abandoned. The rows of freebooting grew bigger; plundering raids, like those of
Vera Cruz in 1683 or of Campêche in 1686, became increasingly numerous, and
Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Marquis de
Seignelay, elder son of Jean Baptist Colbert and at the time Minister of the Navy, brought back some order by taking a great number of measures, including the creation of plantations of
indigo and of
cane sugar. The first sugar windmill was built in 1685. On 22 July 1795, Spain ceded to France the remaining Spanish part of the island of Hispaniola,
Santo Domingo (now the
Dominican Republic), in the second
Treaty of Basel, ending the
War of the Pyrenees. The people of the eastern part of Saint-Domingue (
French Santo Domingo) were opposed to the arrangements and hostile toward the French. The islanders revolted against their new masters and a state of anarchy ensued, leading to more French troops being brought in. Until the mid-18th century, there were efforts made by the French Crown to found a stable French-European population in the colony, a difficult task because there were few European women there. From the 17th century to the mid-18th century, the Crown attempted to remedy this by sending women from France to Saint-Domingue and
Martinique to marry the settlers. However, these women were rumoured to be former prostitutes from
La Salpêtrière and the settlers complained about the system in 1713, stating that the women sent were not suitable, a complaint that was repeated in 1743.
Saint-Domingue colony Plantation economy '' in the waters off
Cap‑Français, 1773 Prior to the
Seven Years' War (1756–1763), the economy of Saint-Domingue gradually expanded, with sugar and, later, coffee becoming important export crops. After the war, which disrupted maritime commerce, the colony underwent rapid expansion. In 1767, it exported 72 million pounds of
raw sugar and 51 million pounds of
refined sugar, one million pounds of
indigo, and two million pounds of cotton. Saint-Domingue became known as the "Pearl of the
Antilles" – one of the richest colonies in the world in the 18th-century
French empire. It was the greatest jewel in imperial France's mercantile crown. By the 1780s, Saint-Domingue produced about 40 percent of all the sugar and 60 percent of all the coffee consumed in Europe. By 1789, Saint Domingue was made up of about 8,000 plantations ..., producing one-half of all the sugar and coffee that was consumed in Europe and the Americas. This single colony, roughly the size of Hawaii or Belgium, produced more sugar and coffee than all of the
British West Indies colonies combined, generating enormous revenue for the French government and enhancing its power. , an
affranchi who became a rich planter, elected member of the
Estates General for Saint-Domingue, and later Deputy of the
French National Convention Between 1681 and 1791 the labor for these plantations was provided by an estimated 790,000 or 860,000 slaves, accounting in 1783–1791 for a third of the entire Atlantic
slave trade. In addition, some Native Americans were enslaved in Louisiana and sent to Saint-Domingue, particularly in the wake of the
Natchez revolt. Between 1764 and 1771, the average annual importation of African slaves varied between 10,000 and 15,000; by 1786 it was about 28,000, and from 1787 onward, the colony received more than 30,000 slaves a year. The inability to maintain slave numbers without constant resupply from Africa meant that at all times, a majority of slaves in the colony were African-born, as specific conditions of slavery and exposure to
tropical diseases such as
yellow fever prevented the population from experiencing growth through natural increase. Slave traders ventured along the Atlantic coast of Africa, buying slaves for plantation labor; most of the slaves they bought were war-captives and enslaved by an opposing African ethnic group. The slaves that they purchased came from hundreds of different tribes; their languages often were mutually incomprehensible, and they learned
Creole French to communicate. The slave population around 1789 totaled to 406,000 (according to
Jacques Pierre Brissot) or 465,000, while there were 28,000 to 32,000
affranchis (ex-slaves) and
Creole of color population who numbered about 28,000 or 32,000. Race was initially tied to culture and class, and some "white" Creoles had non-white ancestry. Although the
Creoles of color and
affranchis held considerable power, they eventually became the subject of racism and a system of segregation due to the introduction of divisionist policies by the
royal government, as the
Bourbon regime feared the united power of the Creoles. Starting in the early 1760s, and gaining much impetus after 1769, Bourbon royalist authorities began attempts to cut Creoles of color out of Saint-Domingue's society, banning them from working in positions of public trust or as respected professionals. They were made subject to discriminatory colonial legislation. Statutes forbade
Gens de couleur from taking up certain professions, wearing European clothing, carrying swords or firearms in public, or attending social functions where whites were present. Central to the rise of the
Gens de couleur planter class was the growing importance of coffee, which thrived on the marginal hillside plots to which they were often relegated. The largest concentration of
Gens de couleur was in the southern peninsula. This was the last region of the colony to be settled, owing to its distance from Atlantic shipping lanes and its formidable terrain, with the highest mountain range in the Caribbean. In the parish of
Jérémie, the
gens de couleur libres formed the majority of the population. Many lived in
Port-au-Prince as well, which became an economic center in the South of the island.
Africans in Saint-Domingue The vast majority of the slaves in Saint-Domingue were war-captives who had lost a war with another ethnic group. Most slaves came from ethnic tension between different tribes and kingdoms, or religious wars between pagans and
Muslim-pagan interreligious wars. Many of the slaves who came to Saint-Domingue could not return to Africa, as their home was controlled by an opposing African ethnic group, and they stayed as
affranchis in Saint-Domingue. African folklore, such as the widespread tales of
Compère Lapin and Compère Bouqui, has been recorded throughout Haiti. Further confusing the name's indication of ethnic, linguistic, religious, or other implications, the concurrent
Bambara Empire had notoriety for its practice of
slave-capturing wherein Bambara soldiers would raid neighbors and capture the young men of other ethnic groups, forcibly assimilate them, and turn them into slave soldiers known as Ton. The Bambara Empire depended on war-captives to replenish and increase its numbers; many of the people who called themselves Bambara were indeed not ethnic Bambara.'' •
The Aradas, a tattooed people who used poison to kill their enemies. They worshipped the moon, mollusks, and serpents. Toussaint Louverture was reportedly of Arada heritage. •
The Tacuas. nor did it limit the amount of property a free person could give to affranchis
. Creoles of color and affranchis'' used the colonial courts to protect their property and sue whites in the colony. A majority of slaves only lived for a few years after their arrival. '' by
François-Hubert Drouais, 1758. Vaudreuil, the son of the colony's French
governor, points to Saint-Domingue on a map. Many people in the colony were outraged by the death of many slaves and the brutality occurring. They proposed reforms that would help the population growth including allowing pregnant women and mothers more time off. A large portion of the enslaved work force worked in harvesting and processing sugar. The conditions made harvesting much more difficult. Slaves were met with 'razor-sharp' stalks; insects and snakes were also hiding within the fields. Work days during harvest typically lasted from 5 am to sunset. Stronger slaves would do difficult field work, while children and older slaves would do easier tasks, such as trimming canes. It is worth noting, however, that the processing of cane sugar was mostly completed by women. The processing of sugar in sugar mills was also dangerous, and it was not uncommon for slaves to lose arms. African culture remained strong among slaves to the end of French rule. The folk religion of
Vodou commingled Catholic liturgy and ritual with the beliefs and practices of the
Vodun religion of
Guinea,
Congo and
Dahomey. Creoles were hesitant to consider Vodou an authentic religion, perceiving it instead as superstition, and they promulgated laws against Vodou practices, effectively forcing it underground. This outlet allowed the slaves in Saint-Domingue to escape the society that saw them as property and not human.
Marronnage Thousands of slaves escaped into the mountains of Saint-Domingue, forming communities of
maroons and raiding isolated plantations. The most famous was
Mackandal, a one-armed slave, originally from
the Guinea region of Africa, who escaped in 1751. A
Vodou Houngan (priest), he united many of the different maroon bands. For the next six years, he staged successful raids while evading capture by the French. He and his followers reputedly killed more than 6,000 people. He preached a radical vision of killing the white population of Saint-Domingue. In 1758, after a failed plot to poison the drinking water of the planters, he was captured and burned alive at the public square in Cap-Français. Slaves who fled to remote mountainous areas were called
marron (
French) or
mawon (
Haitian Creole), meaning 'escaped slave'. The maroons formed close-knit communities that practised
small-scale agriculture and hunting. They were known to return to plantations to free family members and friends. On a few occasions, they also joined the
Indigenous settlements, who had escaped the Spanish in the 17th century. In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, there were a large number of maroons living in the Bahoruco mountains. In 1702, a French expedition against them killed three maroons and captured 11, but over 30 evaded capture, and retreated further into the mountainous forests. Further expeditions were carried out against them with limited success, though they did succeed in capturing one of their leaders, Michel, in 1719. In subsequent expeditions, in 1728 and 1733, French forces captured 46 and 32 maroons respectively. No matter how many detachments were sent against these maroons, they continued to attract runaways. Expeditions in 1740, 1742, 1746, 1757 and 1761 had minor successes against these maroons, but failed to destroy their hideaways. In 1776–77, a joint French-Spanish expedition ventured into the border regions of the Bahoruco mountains, with the intention of destroying the maroon settlements there. However, the maroons had been alerted of their coming, and had abandoned their villages and caves, retreating further into the mountainous forests where they could not be found. The detachment eventually returned, unsuccessful, and having lost many soldiers to illness and desertion. In the years that followed, the maroons attacked a number of settlements, including Fond-Parisien, for food, weapons, gunpowder and women. It was on one of these excursions that one of the maroon leaders, Kebinda, who had been born in freedom in the mountains, was captured. He later died in captivity. In 1782, de Saint-Larry decided to offer peace terms to one of the maroon leaders, Santiago, granted them freedom in return for which they would hunt all further runaways and return them to their owners. Eventually, at the end of 1785, terms were agreed, and the more than 100 maroons under Santiago's command stopped making incursions into French colonial territory.
White indentured servitude and economic downturn (indentured servant) is on the left. As the social systems of Saint-Domingue began to erode after the 1760s, the plantation economy of Saint-Domingue also began to weaken. The price of slaves doubled between 1750 and 1780 and land in Saint-Domingue tripled in price during the same period. Sugar prices still increased, but at a much lower rate than before. The profitability of other crops like coffee collapsed in 1770, causing many planters to go into debt. The planters of Saint-Domingue were eclipsed in their profits by enterprising businessmen; they no longer had a guarantee on their plantation investment, and the slave-trading economy came under increased scrutiny. Saint-Domingue gradually increased its reliance on indentured servants (known as
petits blanchets or
engagés) and by 1789 about 6 percent of all white Creoles were employed as labor on plantations along with slaves. Despite signs of economic decline, Saint-Domingue continued to produce more sugar than all of the British Caribbean islands combined. rebel leader,
Jean-Baptiste Chavannes Creole aristocrats like
Vincent Ogé,
Jean-Baptiste Chavannes, and the ex-governor of Saint-Domingue
Guillaume de Bellecombe, incited several revolts to take control of Saint-Domingue from the
Royal government. These revolts included the incitation of a slave revolt that destroyed much of the northern plain of Saint-Domingue. Creole rebel forces eventually defeated the
Bourbon royalists, but they soon lost control of the slave revolt as Spanish and British forces concurrently invaded the colony. "The rebellion was extremely violent ... the rich plain of the North was reduced to ruins and ashes ..." Within two months, the slave revolt in northern Saint-Domingue killed 2,000 Creoles and burned 280 sugar plantations owned by
grand blancs. Ash from blazing sugar cane fields fell from afar onto
Cap-Français. As the rebellion in Saint-Domingue dragged on, it changed in nature from a political revolution to a
racial war. His official title was Civil Commissioner. Within a year of his appointment, his powers were considerably expanded by the
Committee of Public Safety. Sonthonax believed that all of Saint-Domingue's whites were
Bourbon royalist or
rebel separatist conservatives attached to independence or joining Spain. He stripped away all of the military power of white Creoles, and by doing so, he alienated them from the
Republican government. After defeating Rigaud, Louverture became master of the whole French colony of Saint-Domingue. In November 1799, during the civil war in Saint-Domingue,
Napoleon Bonaparte gained power in France. He created a new civil code; the French Civil Code of Napoleon affirmed the political and legal equality of all adult men; it established a merit-based society in which individuals advanced in education and employment because of talent rather than birth or social standing. The Civil Code confirmed many of the moderate revolutionary policies of the National Assembly but retracted measures passed by the more radical Convention. Napoleon also passed a new constitution, declaring that the colonies would be subject to special laws. Although slaves in Saint-Domingue suspected this meant the re-introduction of slavery, Napoleon began by confirming Louverture's position and promising to maintain the abolition. Napoleon forbade Louverture to control the formerly Spanish settlement on the eastern side of Hispaniola, as that would have given the Louverture a more powerful defensive position. In January 1801, Louverture invaded the Spanish territory of
Santo Domingo, taking possession of it from the governor, Don Garcia, with few difficulties. The area was less developed and populated than the French section. Louverture brought it under French law, abolishing slavery and embarking on a program of modernization. He now controlled the entire island. Louverture promulgated the Constitution of 1801 on 7 July, officially establishing his authority as governor general "for life" over the entire island of Hispaniola and confirming most of his existing policies. Article 3 of the constitution states: "There cannot exist slaves [in Saint-Domingue], servitude is therein forever abolished. All men are born, live and die free and French." During this time, Bonaparte met with the planters of Saint-Domingue and they urged the restoration of slavery in Saint-Domingue, stating that it was integral to the colony's economy.
Toussaint Louverture's prevention of economic collapse in Saint-Domingue Louverture as Saint-Domingue's
Governor-General-for-life enacted forced plantation labor to prevent the collapse of Saint-Domingue's economy. This may have contributed to a rebellion against his regime of forced labor led by his nephew and top general, Moïse, in October 1801. Louverture violently suppressed the labor rebellion, with the result that when the French ships arrived, not all of Saint-Domingue was automatically on Louverture's side. A minority of state officials and civil servants were exempt from manual labor, including Creoles of color. Many of Saint-Domingue's poor had to work hard to survive, and they became increasingly motivated by their hunger. Consisting mostly of slaves, the population was uneducated and largely unskilled. They lived under Louverture's authoritarian control as forced rural laborers. Whites felt the sting of labor most sharply. While Louverture, an
affranchi who had a tolerant master and became a slave holder and plantation owner himself, felt magnanimity toward whites, Dessalines, a former field slave, despised them. Many of Saint-Domingue's whites fled the island during the civil war. Toussaint Louverture, however, understood that they formed a vital part of the economy in Saint-Dommingue as a middle class, and in the hopes of slowing the impending economic collapse, he invited them to return. He gave property settlements and indemnities for war time losses, and promised equal treatment in his new Saint-Domingue; a good number of white Creole refugees did return. The refugees who came back to Saint-Domingue and believed in Toussaint Louverture's rule
were later exterminated by
Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Creole leaders who were defeated during the
War of the South such as
André Rigaud and
Alexandre Pétion accompanied Leclerc's French expeditionary forces. in Saint-Domingue Napoleon wanted to take control of Saint-Domingue again through diplomatic means. In late January 1802, Leclerc arrived and asked permission to land at Cap-Français, but
Henri Christophe prevented him. At the same time, the
Vicomte de Rochambeau suddenly attacked
Fort-Liberté, effectively quashing the diplomatic option and starting a new war in Saint-Domingue. Both Louverture and Dessalines fought against the French expeditionary forces, but after the
Battle of Crête-à-Pierrot, Dessalines defected from his long-time ally Louverture and joined Leclerc's forces. Leclerc proclaimed peaceful intentions, but kept secret his orders to deport black officers holding a rank above captain. Eventually, a ceasefire was enacted between Louverture and the French expeditionary forces. During this ceasefire, Louverture was captured & arrested.
Jean-Jacques Dessalines was at least partially responsible for Louverture's arrest, as asserted by several authors, including Louverture's son, Isaac. On 22 May 1802, after Dessalines learned that Louverture had failed to instruct a local rebel leader to lay down his arms per the recent ceasefire agreement, he immediately wrote to Leclerc to denounce Louverture's conduct as "extraordinary". Leclerc originally asked Dessalines to arrest Louverture, but he declined.
Jean Baptiste Brunet was ordered to do so, and he deported Louverture and his aides to France, claiming that he suspected the former leader of plotting an uprising. Louverture warned, "In overthrowing me you have cut down in Saint-Domingue only the trunk of the tree of liberty; it will spring up again from the roots, for they are numerous and they are deep." For a few months, the island was quiet under Napoleonic rule. But when it became apparent that the French intended to re-establish slavery, because they had done so on
Guadeloupe, Dessalines and Pétion switched sides again, in October 1802, and fought against the French. In November Leclerc died of
yellow fever, like much of his army; the
Vicomte de Rochambeau then became the commanding officer of French expeditionary forces. The
Vicomte de Rochambeau fought a brutal campaign. His atrocities helped rally many former French loyalists to the Haitian rebel cause. A passage from the personal secretary of the later
King of Northern Haiti (1811–1820),
Henry I describes punishments some slaves received: Eventually, the British allied with the Haitian revolutionaries and enacted a
naval blockade on the French forces. Dessalines led the Haitian revolution until its completion, when the French forces were finally defeated in 1803. Dessalines gave the order to the cities of Haiti that all
white people should also be put to death. The weapons used should be silent weapons such as knives and bayonets rather than gunfire, so that the killing could be done more quietly, and avoid warning intended victims by the sound of gunfire and thereby giving them the opportunity to escape. From early January 1804 until 22 April 1804, squads of soldiers moved from house to house throughout Haiti, torturing and killing entire families. Eyewitness accounts of the massacre describe imprisonment and killings even of whites who had been friendly and sympathetic to the
Haitian Revolution. The course of the massacre showed an almost identical pattern in every city he visited. Before his arrival, there were only a few killings, despite his orders. When Dessalines arrived, he demanded that his orders about mass killings of the area's white population should be put into effect. Reportedly, he ordered the unwilling to take part in the killings, especially men of
mixed race, so that the blame should not be placed solely on the black population. Mass killings took place on the streets and in places outside the cities. In parallel to the killings, plundering and
rape also occurred. Women and children were generally killed last. White women were "often raped or pushed into
forced marriages under threat of death." Dessalines did not specifically mention that the white women should be killed, and the soldiers were reportedly somewhat hesitant to do so. In the end, however, the women were also put to death, though normally at a later stage of the massacre than the adult males. The argument for killing the women was that whites would not truly be eradicated if the white women were spared to give birth to new Frenchmen. Before his departure from a city, Dessalines would proclaim an amnesty for all the whites who had survived in hiding during the massacre. When these people left their hiding place, however, they were murdered as well. Some whites were, nevertheless, hidden and smuggled out to sea by foreigners. There were notable exceptions to the ordered killings. A contingent of
Polish defectors were given amnesty and granted Haitian citizenship for their renouncement of French allegiance and support of Haitian independence. Dessalines referred to the Poles as
"the White Negroes of Europe", as an expression of his solidarity and gratitude.
Empire of Haiti (1804–1806) , 17 October 1806 Dessalines was crowned Emperor Jacques I of the
Haitian Empire on 6 October 1804 in the city of
Cap-Haïtien. On 20 May 1805, his government released the Imperial Constitution, naming Jean-Jacques Dessalines emperor for life with the right to name his successor. Dessalines declared Haiti to be an all-black nation and forbade whites from ever owning property or land there. The generals who served under Dessalines during the Haitian Revolution became the new planter class of Haiti. In order to slow the economic collapse of Haiti, Dessalines enforced a harsh regimen of plantation labor on newly freed slaves. Dessalines demanded that all blacks work either as soldiers to defend the nation or return to the plantations as labourers, so as to raise commodity crops such as sugar and coffee for export to sustain his new empire. His forces were strict in enforcing this, to the extent that some black subjects felt they were enslaved again. Haitian society became
feudal in nature as workers could not leave the land they worked. Dessalines was assassinated on 17 October 1806 by rebels led by Haitian generals
Henri Christophe and
Alexandre Pétion; his body was found dismembered and mutilated. Dessalines' murder did not solve the tensions in Haiti; instead, the country was torn into two new countries led by each general. The Northern
State of Haiti (later the
Kingdom of Haiti) maintained forced plantation labor and became rich, while the Southern
Republic of Haiti abandoned forced plantation labor and collapsed economically. ==Aftermath==