Haitian Independence, Second War of
1802 CE to 1805 CE
The Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) is a slave revolt in what is at this time the French colony of Saint-Domingue.
It culminates in the elimination of slavery here and the founding of the Republic of Haiti.The Haitian Revolution is the only slave revolt that leads to the founding of a state.
Furthermore, it is generally considered the most successful slave rebellion ever to have occurred, and a defining moment in the histories of Europe and the Americas.
The revolt begins with a rebellion of black African slaves in April of 1791.
It ends in November of 1803 with the French defeat at the Battle of Vertières.
Haiti becomes an independent country on January 1, 1804, with Jean-Jacques Dessalines being chosen by a council of generals to assume the office of governor-general.
He orders the 1804 Haiti massacre of the white Haitian minority, resulting in the deaths of between three thousand and five thousand people, between February and April 1804.An independent government is created in Haiti, but the country's society remains deeply affected by patterns established under French colonial rule.
Because many white planters had provided for the mixed-race children they had by black African women, by giving them education and (for males) training and entrée into the French military, the mulatto descendants who along with the wealthy freedmen had been orchestrators of the revolution become the elite of Haitian society after the war's end.
Many of them had use their social capital to acquire wealth, and some already owned land.
Some had identified more with the colonists than the slaves.Their domination of politics and economics after the revolution creates another two-caste society, as most Haitians are rural subsistence farmers.
In addition, the nascent state's future will be compromised in 1825 when France forces it to pay one hundred and fifty million gold francs in reparations to French slaveholders—as a condition of French recognition and to end the nation's political and economic isolation.
Though the amount of the reparations will be reduced in 1838, Haiti will be unable to finish paying off its debt until 1947, the payments having left the country's government deeply impoverished, causing instability.
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Napoleon, wanting to regain control of the lucrative sugar trade in Saint-Domingue (Hispaniola), and with an eye on regaining France's New World empire, sends an army under the command of his brother-in-law General Charles Leclerc to Saint-Domingue to seize control after a slave revolt.
The historian J. R. McNeill asserts that yellow fever accounted for about thirty-five thousand to forty-five thousand casualties of these forces during the fighting. (McNeill, J.R. (2010). Mosquito Empires: Ecology and War in the Greater Caribbean, 1620–1914. Cambridge University Press. p. 259)
Only one third of the French troops survive for withdrawal and return to France.
Napoleon gives up on the island and his plans for North America, selling the Louisiana Purchase to the United States in 1803.
In 1804, Haiti will proclaimed its independence as the second republic in the Western Hemisphere.
Considerable debate exists over whether the number of deaths caused by disease in the Haitian Revolution was exaggerated.
Eastern West Indies (1792–1803 CE): Revolution, Warfare, and Haitian Independence
Revolution and Devastation in Saint-Domingue
From 1792 to 1803, Saint-Domingue became the epicenter of revolutionary upheaval, profoundly altering the Eastern West Indies. Triggered by ideals of liberty inspired by France's own revolution, the Haitian Revolution evolved into one of history's bloodiest slave rebellions. The conflict dismantled the plantation system, resulting in mass flight of surviving Europeans, and caused severe demographic devastation—more than half of Haiti's population and two-thirds of its male inhabitants perished during fifteen years of warfare.
International Conflict and Territorial Struggle
Amidst the revolution, Spain and Britain initially saw an opportunity to divide Saint-Domingue between them. British forces seized territories like Jeremie and Mole Saint-Nicolas, capturing Port-au-Prince in June 1794, while Spain pushed into northern regions. However, their advances were halted primarily by tropical diseases, which decimated their forces. Britain ultimately withdrew in April 1798 after losing more than 25,000 troops.
Spain, struggling in Europe, ceded the eastern part of Hispaniola to France in mid-1795, reflecting its declining global power. French forces occupied the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo in February 1802, reestablishing slavery there, but soon faced insurmountable resistance.
Leadership and Conflict under Toussaint Louverture
Emerging as the key revolutionary figure, Toussaint Louverture became lieutenant governor in 1796 after rescuing French commander General Etienne-Maynard Laveaux from mulatto insurgents. Toussaint subsequently gained complete military authority, expelling French officials and defeating mulatto forces in the War of the Castes (1799–1800). After capturing Santo Domingo in 1800, Toussaint controlled the entire island.
Toussaint aimed to maintain economic stability, reinstating forced labor (fermage) for plantations and outlawing voodoo in favor of Roman Catholicism. He instituted controversial social regulations, including bans on divorce, despite personal contradictions. His authority culminated in his appointment as governor-general for life in 1801.
French Attempts at Re-conquest
Toussaint’s power alarmed slave-holding nations and threatened Napoleon Bonaparte’s imperial ambitions. Consequently, in January 1802, Napoleon dispatched a 20,000-strong multinational force under General Charles Victor Emmanuel Leclerc, who landed in Saint-Domingue. Initially resisting fiercely, Toussaint was betrayed by lieutenants Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Henry Christophe, leading to his surrender on May 6, 1802. Despite assurances of safety, Toussaint was imprisoned in France, where he died on April 7, 1803.
Independence and the End of French Rule
Leclerc's army suffered catastrophic losses to tropical diseases, notably yellow fever, killing around 52,000 French soldiers. Following Leclerc’s death from illness in November 1802, his successor, General Donatien Rochambeau, continued the brutal struggle. Rochambeau advocated extreme measures, including mass extermination, yet eventually succumbed to defeat at the hands of Dessalines and Haitian revolutionary forces.
After the pivotal French defeat at Vertieres, Rochambeau fled to Jamaica, surrendering to the British in November 1803. French colonial rule ended, and the independent Republic of Haiti was declared by Dessalines in January 1804.
Conclusion
The era from 1792 to 1803 in the Eastern West Indies was defined by revolutionary fervor, brutal conflict, and significant geopolitical shifts. The Haitian Revolution eradicated three centuries of foreign domination, profoundly reshaping Caribbean history and inspiring global anti-colonial movements.
The slave revolt on St. Domingue destroys the plantation system, and most of the Europeans who survive the carnage flee the island, though the feuding black and mulatto factions continue to recognize the authority of the French government.
Fifteen years of continual warfare kills more than half of Haiti's population and two-thirds of the men, results in a declaration of Haitian independence, and lays the foundation for the modern state of Haiti.
Both free and enslaved populations in Louisiana have increased rapidly during the years of Spanish rule, as new settlers and Creoles have imported large numbers of slaves to work on plantations.
Some American settlers have brought slaves with them who were native to Virginia or North Carolina, but the Pointe Coupee inventories show that most slaves brought by traders have come directly from Africa.
There are 19,852 free persons and 24,264 enslaved persons in Lower Louisiana, which includes West Florida, by the 1800 census.
Although the censuses do not always cover the same territory, they show a majority of slaves in the population throughout these years.
Records during Spanish rule are not as well documented as with the French slave trade, so it is difficult to trace more specific origins of enslaved Africans.
Spain agrees in 1799 to return Louisiana to France in exchange for the promise of a throne in central Italy.
The secret agreement, signed on October 1, 1800 as part of the Treaty of San Ildefonso, does not go into effect until 1802.
Napoleon Bonaparte sells Louisiana to the United States the following year.
Documents have revealed that Napoleon harbored secret ambitions to reconstruct a large colonial empire in the Americas.
This notion falters, however, when the French attempt to reconquer Haiti after its revolution ends in failure.
Louverture has fended off invasions of St. Domingue by the Spanish and British empires, but has also begun to consolidate power for himself on the island.
Before the Revolution, France had derived enormous wealth from St. Domingue at the cost of the lives and freedom of the slaves.
Napoleon wants its revenues and productivity for France restored.
Alarmed over the French actions and its intention to re-establish an empire in North America, Jefferson declares neutrality in relation to the Caribbean, refusing credit and other assistance to the French, but allowing war contraband to get through to the rebels to prevent France from regaining a foothold.
Leclerc begins his invasion on February 3 with approximately seventeen thousand troops, landing the first five thousand at several points on the north coast; with him is Alexandre Pétion.
Villaret had arrived before Cap-Haïtien on February 3 and an attack by land and sea begins two days later.
General Henri Christophe carries out his orders, setting light to the town and slitting the throats of part of the white population.
Toussaint, with approximately twenty thousand men under his command, orders the black generals to raze the coast towns and retreat into the interior, but because of either disloyalty or poor communications the order is not universally followed.
Christophe burns Le Cap to ashes for the second time in ten years, but the French occupy Port-au-Prince before Jean-Jacques Dessalines can destroy it.
Putting out the fires and putting up defensive works, Leclerc sets up his main headquarters at Cap-Haïtien before sending ships towards North America to resupply.
During this time Latouche-Tréville and Boudet take Port-au-Prince and Léogâne and obtains Laplume's surrender.
General Kerverseau, landing at Santo Domingo with two thousand men, takes possession of a large part of the Spanish area of the island, at this time headed by Toussaint's brother Paul Louverture.
Rochambeau on the left sets out from Fort-Dauphin towards Saint-Michel, while Hardy marches on Marmelade and Desfourneaux on Plaisance.
At the same time general Humbert is to land at Port-de-Paix to climb up the Trois-Rivières gorge, and Boudet to move up from south to north.
The aim is to surprise the enemy, force him to retreat to Les Gonaïves and there encircle him.
Despite the difficulties of the terrain and Maurepas's resistance, the plan works well.
General Boudet occupied Saint-Marc, also on fire and filled with the blood of the throats cut on the orders of Dessalines, who managed to escape the trap.
Maurepas and his two thousand troops continue to resist but finally have to surrender to Humbert.
The French forces besieging fort de la Crête-à-Pierrot are attacked in the rear by Dessalines, then by Toussaint, as they attempt to bring relief to the besieged, but the fort is finally forced to surrender and inside it are found large amounts of arms and munitions as well as many assassinated white residents.
At Les Verrettes the French forces find a horrible spectacle.
No longer able to follow the rebel forces' march, eight hundred men, women, children and old people had been killed, and the rebels there had also killed any prisoners they had taken.
The French forces pursuing Toussaint have fought a number of drawn battles in the interior of the island in late February and March, with heavy casualties on both sides.