The creation of Haiti was the culmination of a slave revolt that began on a stormy night in the dense woods of Bois Caïman in Saint-Domingue, on 21st September, 1791, when a Voodoo ceremony led by the Jamaican-born priest Dutty Boukman called upon the enslaved Africans to reject their masters and embrace freedom in a bloody uprising.

Saint-Domingue was France’s most lucrative colony, producing vast quantities of sugar, coffee, cotton, and indigo. However, this wealth came at an enormous human cost. The brutal conditions on the plantations, exacerbated by rampant diseases like yellow fever, led to a staggering death rate among the enslaved population. 

Meanwhile the French colonists, who were vastly outnumbered by the enslaved Africans, lived in constant fear of rebellion. When it came, the uprising rapidly gained momentum, destroying hundreds of plantations and killing thousands of white colonists within weeks.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how the revolution was not actually intended to separate Haiti from France; consider how Toussaint Louverture rose through the ranks to command a formidable army and confront Napoleon’s forces; and reveal how the Haitian flag came to be… 

Further Reading:

• ‘Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) • Global African History’ (Blackpast, 2007): https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/haitian-revolution-1791-1804/

• ’How Toussaint L'ouverture Rose from Slavery to Lead the Haitian Revolution’ (HISTORY, 2021): https://www.history.com/news/toussaint-louverture-haiti-revolution

• ’The Haitian Revolution - Liberation’ (Extra History, 2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfLskhmVd7k

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