Haiti

It all started in 1492 when Christopher Columbus, in an attempt to reach India, landed on a small island in the Caribbean, which he later dubbed Hispaniola (little Spain). The natives, the Taino/ Arawaks, greeted him and his crew very hospitably. The Spanish sailors, seeing perfect servitude in the natives’ kindness, reported their findings to the people back home. Almost as soon as word broke out, more and more settlers from Spain began populating the isle. Abusing the peacefulness and cooperation of the Taino/ Arawaks, they enslaved them, forcing them to work the land and dig for gold. The invaders, however, had not foreseen that their diseases would be fatal to the natives, as the latter faction had never received protection from them. It was a sad fate for the Taino/ Arawaks as almost all of them succumbed to the sicknesses and died.

Having pretty much depleted most of their native slaves, the colonizers of Hispaniola had Africans shipped in to take up the load. Having been inoculated against the illnesses, the Africans were used as slaves by the Spaniards for the following century and a half. The colony was thriving most successfully… Then along came the pirates. The filibusters and the buccaneers, French pirates, began causing trouble for the Spanish invaders. Fearing future incursions, the latter willingly handed half the island over to France in 1697. From here came the great division of the isle, Spain occupying the east side (Santo Domingo) and the French owning the west (Saint Domingue).

By 1700, there were about 500,000 African slaves on the island, a number greatly superior to the invaders’. Some tried to rebel, attempting to escape or getting revenge on their “masters”. But it mattered little in the end. They were still being subjugated. One of them would go down in history as the most recognized and respected. His name was Toussaint Breda. Thought not originally from Africa, he heard many stories from his father, who used to be a free man over there. Listening to these, Toussaint was able to realize that he was more than just a slave, that he was a man with rights. Fortunate enough to have a liberal “master” who allowed him to learn to read and write on his own, Toussaint began reading books by enlightenment thinkers who wrote about equality of man. A defining point in his life was when he witnessed a slave being burnt alive as punishment for an escape attempt. After this, he would begin his road to becoming the leader of the revolution.

The last decade of the 16th century was where the sparks of upheaval really began to fly. In 1789, Boukman, a voodoo high priest, hosted a secret ceremony in the Caiman woods, to which Toussaint was attending, a ceremony that riled up the Africans to take up arms against their “masters”. They “moved as one body and put to the torch everything that belonged to the white people, at the same time killing every white person they could find.” The French Revolution was just about culminating around that time, resulting in a new government in France. The Rights of Man became a major issue for this new government. With that in mind, a proposition was made to abolish slavery in all French-owned territories, a proposition that was denied in 1791. Outraged, Toussaint, now known as L’Ouverture (the opening), led a group of slaves at war against the French colonists: a successful campaign. The abolition proposal was reintroduced in 1793, under the Jacobins’ rule, this time being accepted. The slaves were finally freed. They rejoiced. Toussaint ended up becoming an ally to the new French Government, using his skills as a brilliant general to help them out in many situations. This was not meant to last though. Napoleon Bonaparte soon replaced the Jacobins in power. He reinstated slavery in the French colonies, causing a civil war to erupt in Saint Domingue. In 1803, with the intention of ceasing the bloodshed, Toussaint agreed to meet up with Napoleon in order to sign a peace treaty that would simultaneously declare Saint Domingue, now called Haiti, as independent. Toussaint was betrayed. Napoleon had him captured and locked away. Toussaint eventually died while in captivity but his forces were stronger than ever as they carried on the war back in Haiti. In 1804, having forced the French government to surrender the territory, the former slaves had won. Haiti and its people were now finally independent.

WORKS CITED:
http://www.historywiz.com/toussaint.htm
http://nhs.needham.k12.ma.us/cur/Baker_00/2002-p4/baker_p4_12-01_db/index.htmhttp://www.pages.drexel.edu/~sd65/carib_history/arawaks.htm