The Haitian Revolution · Grades 9–10

The passage and its 7 questions

Directions: Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questions in full sentences.

• In the 1780s the French colony of Saint-Domingue, on the western part of the island of
• Hispaniola, was one of the most profitable places on Earth. Its plantations produced a large share of the world's sugar and coffee. That wealth rested on the forced labor of roughly half a million enslaved people, most of them born in Africa, who greatly outnumbered the colony's white colonists and its free people of color.
• News of the French Revolution of 1789, with its talk of liberty and equality, raised hard questions in the colony. In August 1791, enslaved people on the northern plain rose up in a carefully planned revolt. Within weeks the uprising had spread across the region, and it grew into a war that lasted more than twelve years.
• Among its leaders was Toussaint Louverture, a formerly enslaved man who had gained his freedom before the revolt. He proved a skilled general and an even more skilled negotiator. As Spain and Britain fought France for control of the island, French officials abolished slavery in the colony in 1793, and in 1794 France ended it in all its colonies.
• Toussaint then allied with France and drove out the invaders. By 1801 he controlled the colony and issued a constitution that made him governor for life.
• Napoleon Bonaparte, now ruling France, wanted the colony's wealth restored under
• French control. In 1802 he sent a large army. Toussaint was seized during negotiations and shipped to France, where he died in prison the next year. The fight continued under
• Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Yellow fever devastated the French troops, and when news spread that France had restored slavery in its other Caribbean colonies, resistance hardened. In November 1803 the remaining French forces were defeated.
• On January 1, 1804, Dessalines declared independence. The new nation took the name
• Haiti, from a name used by the island's Indigenous Taíno people. It was the first nation in the world founded by people who had freed themselves from slavery.
• The revolution's effects reached far beyond the island. With his army in
• Saint-Domingue collapsing, Napoleon gave up his plans for an empire in the Americas and in 1803 sold the vast Louisiana territory to the United States. Enslaved people across the Americas heard of Haiti's victory, while slaveholding governments feared it, and many refused to recognize the new country. In 1825 France demanded a huge payment from Haiti in exchange for recognition, a debt that burdened the country's economy for generations.
• 1. Why was Saint-Domingue so valuable to France?
• 2. How did the French Revolution influence events in Saint-Domingue?
• 3. What two factors helped Dessalines's forces defeat the French army?
• 4. In paragraph 6, what does 'recognize' mean when used about a country?
• 5. Explain how the Haitian Revolution affected the United States.
• 6. Copy the sentence that explains what made Haiti's founding unique.
• 7. Rewrite the opening sentence for a different audience and explain your choices.