The Haitian Revolution was influenced initially by events in France, especially the French Revolution of 1789. According to Yvette Taylor Kanarick in Caribbean History Core Course, “The events unfolding in France were to profoundly affect the course of the St.Domingue revolution.”1 On August 26, 1789, the newly convened Estates General passed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. France was divided into a rigid oppressive social class system just as St.Domingue. The first and second classes were made up of the clergy and the nobility, the third class was made up of all others from lawyers down to peasants. This unequal class structure created the atmosphere for the oppressed persons to fight for liberty, equality and fraternity. Upon the outbreak of the French Revolution, the people of St.Domingue, who were also French subjects, demanded their share of the slogan of liberty, equality and fraternity. This demand resulted in several conflicts between the different classes, which will later impact the revolt of the enslaved persons in the colony. The different classes were fighting for different reasons. The white plantocracy wanted equality with the whites in France and to rid themselves of the royalist bureaucracy to which they were subjected. The free coloureds on the other hand wanted equality with the whites politically and socially as well as an end to discriminations against them, while the enslaved people just simply grasped the opportunity to seek their freedom. Kanarick agreed with the view of Thomas Clarkson who was a well known British abolitionist, coming out of the same era, in his ‘Thoughts on the Haitian Revolution’. He made it clear that several factors contributed to the success of the revolution.2 First of which was the impact that the French Revolution had on the colony. It may be remembered then, he pointed out, that when the French Revolution, which decreed equality of rights to all citizens, had taken place, the free people of colour of St. Dominge, many of whom were persons of large property and liberal education petitioned the National Assembly. The reply, however, was worded so ambiguously, that the two parties concerned, the whites and the people of colour, interpreted it each in its own favour which divided them even further and led to greater disquiet between them. The conflict between the whites and the coloureds provided the enslaved people with a great opportunity to fight for their freedom. The whites and the coloureds were so caught up n their own struggle that they neglected the enslaved, to the extent that their very supervision broke down. As a result of this, the enslaved people were left free to plan their revolt. This gave them a good chance of revolting successfully. The conflict between the whites and the coloureds was so intense that there was no immediate possibility of them uniting to fight against the enslaved people which formerly, had led to the defeat of slave uprisings.
Hilary Beckles and Verene Shepherd in Liberties Lost Caribbean Indigenous Societies and Slave Systems also agreed with the argument, that the conflict between the whites and the mulattoes was one of the factors that assisted in the success of the Haitian Revolution. They took it even further to say that as a result of the conflict, the coloureds took things in their own hands and formed an army of some 350 coloureds to demand legal equality from the governor. This army was defeated by the local militia and its leaders Vincent Oge and Jean-Baptist Chevannes were executed.3 The French government responded to this by passing a law which recognized the equality of the free coloured with the whites, but the whites were completely opposed to this and took action. A civil war developed between the free coloured and white communities both using the enslaved in their different armies. “The enslaved blacks, however, entered the war with their own agenda. They launched a major revolt against both white and coloured enslavers, demanding their freedom.” The enslaved got assistance from the free coloureds in the north who were seeking their own revenge for the murder of Oge and Chevannes.
Secondly, The essay ‘Social Triggers of the Haitian Revolution’ by David Rand, also supports this point that the success of the Haitian Revolution was not only based on the actions of the enslaved people as it states, “the Haitian revolution was not just the result of the long struggle on the part of the slaves in St. Domingue, but it was also propelled by the free mulattoes who had long faced the trials of being seen as semi citizens.”4 The whites in the colony saw the mulattoes as people of colour and as such they were repressed by the conservative white power structure. They had many grievances for example as soon as they got to manhood they were enlisted for a mandatory three years term in the military after which they were further forced to join their local militia without compensation. This, by itself, was enough for this class of mullatoes to take things into their own hands. Even though many of the mullatoes were trained soldiers who could easily defeat the enslaved people uprising that followed, their battle was not against them but instead against their suppressors the white plantocracy. In addition to all this the mulattoes also provided important leaders who fought on their behalf in the wars that liberated the colony. For instance, Andre Rigaud who was an educated mullatto and trained soldier successfully led the mulattoes in the west in their fight against the whites. There was also Alexandre Petion, another educated mulatto, who allied himself with Dessalines in 1802 and who ruled southern Haiti from 1807 to 1818. They joined the side of Sonthonax and the newly emancipated slaves to prevent a British take over of St.Domingue, fearing that such a victory would lead to the introduction of laws that would restrict their freedom. This action by the free coloureds’ against the white plantocracy did not only just encouraged the enslaved people to seek their own freedom, but it also gave them the opportunity to take the whites by surprise as they were preoccupied in this war. It should be borne in mind that the whites and the mulattoes were at first united against the enslaved people but as a result of the whites failure to grant the decree which would give them equality to the whites the mulattoes joined the enslaved people in their war to exterminate the whites.
Thirdly, Ted Gur, added a new dimension to the discussion as he added that the “Haitian revolution came as a result of the “psychological change that occurred in the minds of the people of St. Domingue.” According to him “the situation exploded as there was no unity among the classes”.6 He supports the previous argument but added this new dimension that” The colonists of St. Domingue were so changed in their thinking so that they would no longer accept the system that existed before the revolution in France.” This he continued created the weakness between the oppressors of the upper classes and the oppressed of the lower classes which would remove any likelihood of them regaining their former ranks.
A fourth factor that contributed to the success of the Haitian Revolution was its complexity. According to Ott Thomas, “The Haitian Revolution was very complex, consisting of several revolutions going on simultaneously.”7 The local militia was not sure where to place its efforts of resistance as all the ongoing revolts were of serious threat to the colony of St. Domingue. His claims are similar to that of the others, that the revolution was influenced by the French Revolution and the then ambiguous Declaration of the Rights of Man. He added that the whites had sufficient grounds on which to interpret the declaration to include only the planter class, excluding the petit blancs and interestingly enough include some people of colour who were large property owners, but it generated the three sided civil war between the planters, the free coloureds and the petit blancs. Kanarick added that the whites and the free persons of colour wanted independence for St.Domingue, and so formed an alliance based on common economic concern, but this union was not forged early enough to prevent the success of the enslaved people.
The new government in France which was faced with the dilemma of wanting gradual abolition of slavery, yet wanting to retain France’s prosperous Caribbean colonies, was forced to pass a bill which emphasized liberty, equality and fraternity for the upper classes, but at the same time adopt a policy of gradualism for the enslaved people. The petit blancs formed a colonial assembly at St.Marc for home rule to which the white planters were opposed as they saw it as being against their interest and so withdrew and formed their own assembly at Cape Francois. The French government officials in the colony saw this split between the two white groups as beneficial to them as they had lost effective control of the colony, so this split would reduce the opposition that they were experiencing This further weakened the already weak framework and so rendered it unable to resist the onslaught by the slaves which opportunely followed.
The French national assembly was deeply worried by the independence movement among the white planters and free men of colour. By early 1792, blacks controlled most of the rich northern plain and Cap Francois was under constant siege. Hundreds of whites had been killed, the plantations were in ruins and the economy had come to a standstill, meanwhile the blacks were learning their military skills. Yet, it was not the slaves whom the assembly focused on. It was rather the struggle between free persons of colour and the white planters which was of greater concern to the general assembly which gave the enslaved people the much needed ‘breathing space’ which they need to effect their plan.

A fifth factor to note is that religion also played an important role in the success of the Haitian Revolution. For several years the slaves had been deserting their plantations with increasing frequency. The numbers of maroons had swollen dramatically and all that was needed was some spark to ignite the pent up frustration, hatred and impulse toward independence. This spark was a Voodoo service held at Bois Caiman. A woman at the service was possessed by Ogoun, the Voodoo warrior spirit. She sacrificed a black pig, and speaking through the voice of the spirit, named those who were to lead the enslaved people and maroons to revolt and seek a stark justice from their white oppressors. The woman named Boukman, Jean-Francois, Biassou and Jeannot as the leaders of the uprising. It was some time later before Toussaint, Henry Christophe, Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Andre Rigaud took their places as the leading generals who brought The Haitian Revolution to its final triumph. Word spread rapidly of this historic and prophetic religious service and the maroons and slaves readied themselves for a major assault on the whites. This uprising which would not ever be turned back began on the evening of August 21st when the whole northern plain surrounding Cape Francois went up in flames. Plantation owners were murdered, their women raped and killed, children slaughtered and their bodies mounted on poles to lead the slaves. It was an incredibly savage outburst, yet it still fell short of the treatment the slaves had received, and would still continue to receive, from the white planters.

The sixth factor came from , the “American Historical Review Vol 105 The Haitian Revolution” by Franklyn Knight which suggested that it was the precedence set by the warring upper classes which gave the slaves, who were used by both the whites and the mulattoes to fight their cause, the idea of pursuing their own cause.10 If they could fight for the causes of the whites and or the mulattoes, who were their oppressors, and which would not benefit them one way or the other why could they not fight for themselves and their own freedom. So in August 1791, after fighting for nearly two years on one or the other side of free persons who claimed they were fighting for liberty equality and fraternity, the slaves applied their fighting to their own cause. Once they had started that fight they refused to settle for anything less than full freedom for themselves.

Bibliography 1 Yvette Taylor Kanarick, Caribbean History: Core Course, (Express Litho Ltd, 2001) 186 2 Thomas Clarkson, Thoughts on the Haitian Revolution http://thelouvertureproject.org/index.php?title=Thomas_Clarkson_-_Thoughts_on_The_Haitian_Revolution. 3 Hilary Beckles and Verene Shepherd, Liberties Lost: Caribbean Indigenous Societies and Slave Systems, (Cambridge University Press, 2004)184 4 David Rand, Social Triggers of the Haitian Revolution, Slave Resistance a Caribbean Study, scholar library. Miami.edu/slaves/san/revolution, 2000. 5 Doris Hamilton-Willie, Lest You Forget, Resistance and Revolt, (Jamaica Publishing House Ltd, 2003) 58 6 Gur Ted, Theoretical Approaches To Understand The Haitian Revolution, Haiti Watch
7 Ott Thomas O. The Haitian Revolution 1789 – 1804, Online Encyclopedia
8 Yvette Taylor Kanarick, Caribbean History: Core Course, (Express Litho Ltd, 2001) 185
9 Yvette Taylor Kanarick, Caribbean History: Core Course, (Express Litho Ltd, 2001) 184
10 Franklin Knight, The American Historical Review Vol 105, The Haitian Revolution