Document Set A: Racial Tensions and Violence
Document A1
Document A2: A French Legislator’s Explanation of the Slave Revolt (1797)
“In the midst of the general exaltation of passions caused by the Revolution, when the word liberty was in everyone’s mouths, even those of the white colonists who used it to claim tyrannical power and political independence for themselves, when the symbols of freedom were displayed everywhere, it would have been odd indeed if the blacks alone had been deaf to the sound of a word that promised them a condition so different from the one they were suffering under. They saw the whites fighting among themselves and alienating the mulattoes. They outnumbered the whites ten to one. One would have to have a very poor understanding of human nature to think that, in such a situation, the blacks needed any inspiration other than this impulse that is irresistible for all living creatures…” (Garran-Coulon, Rapport sur les Troubles de Saint-Domingue, 2:194)
Document A3: The Slave Rebellion of 1791 (Haiti), Dr. Antonio Rafael de la Cova
The carnage that the slaves wreaked in northern settlements, such as Acul, Limbé, Flaville, and Le Normand, revealed the simmering fury of an oppressed people. The bands of slaves slaughtered every white person they encountered... Accounts of the rebellion describe widespread torching of property, fields, factories, and anything else that belonged to, or served, slaveholders. The inferno is said to have burned almost continuously for months.
News of the slaves' uprising quickly reached Cap Français. Reprisals against nonwhites were swift and every bit as brutal as the atrocities committed by the slaves. Although outnumbered, the inhabitants of Le Cap (the local diminutive for Cap Français) were well-armed and prepared to defend themselves against the tens of thousands of blacks who descended upon the port city.
Document A3: A White Plantation-Owner Describes the Behavior of Emancipated Blacks (1799)
“They profit from their present preponderance to vex the whites, humiliate them whenever the circumstances permit, by outbursts, thefts, or insults that aren’t punished. ‘You punished me, now I punish you!’ That is their unanimous cry.” (Descourtilz, Voyages (1809), 2:452-3)
Document A4: "The American Revolution in Comparative Perspective", R.R. Palmer
"But neither slavery or racial questions were ever at issue between Britain and America at the time of the Revolution, as they might have been if the white Americans had rebelled a half-century later. It may be noted in passing that many white Americans were already uneasy about the enslavement of Africans and that they suppressed the question in order to maintain unity among themselves.... for practical purposes, the Americans meant the white Americans of European and mainly English decent and that these ex-Europeans... were far from being a minority in their own country."
"But neither slavery or racial questions were ever at issue between Britain and America at the time of the Revolution, as they might have been if the white Americans had rebelled a half-century later. It may be noted in passing that many white Americans were already uneasy about the enslavement of Africans and that they suppressed the question in order to maintain unity among themselves.... for practical purposes, the Americans meant the white Americans of European and mainly English decent and that these ex-Europeans... were far from being a minority in their own country."
Document A5
Document A6
Discussion Questions:
1. What do the pie charts tell you about the populations of the colony of S. Domingue and the early US? What are some similarities in these populations? Differences?
2. How did the revolution change these statistics for Haiti? For the US? Explain.
3. What do the descriptions (documents A2-A3) show us about the relationships between different parts of the population of Haiti?
4. How do these documents help you to answer the question:
"Why were British North American colonists better prepared for Independence than their Latin American neighbors to the south?”
2. How did the revolution change these statistics for Haiti? For the US? Explain.
3. What do the descriptions (documents A2-A3) show us about the relationships between different parts of the population of Haiti?
4. How do these documents help you to answer the question:
"Why were British North American colonists better prepared for Independence than their Latin American neighbors to the south?”