During the 18th century, Haiti was known as Saint Domingue, a French Empire colony. Following the American and French Revolutions, Haitians, 90% of whom were enslaved Africans and their descendants, organized and began to rebel. In 1791, the Haitian Revolution began and kicked off a fight for freedom, both for themselves and their country, that would not be over in earnest until the mid-20th century. Read on to discover what caused the Haitian Revolution, how it unfolded, and the fight for true independence that sprawled over centuries.Society on Saint DominguePlanting the Sugarcane, circa 1820. Source: Royal Museums GreenwichSaint Domingue, present-day Haiti, consisted of the westernmost part of the island of Hispaniola. The island wasand still isdivided in two, with Spain (modern-day Dominican Republic) controlling the eastern part and the French controlling Saint Domingue.Saint Domingue was Frances wealthiest overseas colonial holding in the 18th century. This was largely due to reliance on the colonys slave economy. No workforce costs meant profits soared for the resources provided to the French crown, which included cocoa, sugar cane, coffee, and indigo. The colony of Saint Domingue provided France with almost the same revenue as all 13 North American colonies did for the British.A stratified and rigid caste-based society existed in Saint Domingue. Those at the top, mostly French-born planters and minor aristocrats, were called grands blancs. The middle-class and poorer white colonists, the petits blancs, were mostly artisans, shopkeepers, day laborers, and overseers. The total white population of Saint Domingue in the late 1700s was around 40,000.Below the petits blancs were the gens de couleur libres, or free people of color. Several discriminatory laws were passed against the free Black population of Saint Domingue, which regulated what clothes they could wear, what jobs they could hold, and where they could live. Many worked as domestic servants or day laborers. Their population, including free mulattoes, was around 28,000.The lowest class in Saint Domingue was the enslaved laborers, who outnumbered the white population on a scale of around ten to one. Around 452,000 enslaved Black people lived in Saint Domingue and worked the plantations, with the bare minimum rest, food, and shelter given. The life expectancy for enslaved people brought directly from Africa was around two to three years. In comparison, an enslaved person born in the colony was expected to live only about 16 years.Free Women of Color with their Children and Servants in a Landscape by Agostino Brunias, 18th century. Source: Traveling HaitiSince the death rate was higher than the birth rate in Saint Domingue, it was cheaper for plantation owners to have a constant influx of enslaved Africans coming to the colony. This created a stratification among the enslaved population of Saint Domingue. Colony-born enslaved people were seen as a higher class, who got less labor-intensive jobs, such as those in the kitchen or the main house as personal servants, while those from Africa were treated as lesser and worked in the fields.Finally, another group of Black Haitians existed on the outskirts of the plantations. The maroons, or runaway slaves, survived off of subsistence farming deep in the forests and mountains of the island.The grand majority of enslaved people on the island spoke a mix of French and African languages called Haitian Creole, and also mixed religions to form Haitian Voodou. This combined Catholic and West African religious traditions into a religion that implicitly believed that slavery did not exist.Society in Saint Domingue was a precarious one. Poorer whites resented rich whites, and vice versa. Free Blacks resented poor whites, mulattoes resented free Blacks, enslaved Creoles resented those from Africa, and so on. The petits blancs were disenchanted with the strict taxation and tariffs imposed by the French government and favored independence. However, they still believed in the institution of slavery. Enslaved Haitians also wanted independence, and with numbers and manpower on their sides, slave rebellions had been attempted in the past and would be imminent in the future.The Beginning of the Haitian RevolutionCremonie du Bois-Caman by Andre Normil, 1990. Source: Atlanta Black StarThe Haitian Revolution formally began between August 13 and 14, 1791, during the ceremony of Bois Caman. Two leaders, Boukman Dutty and Ccile Fatiman, both of whom were Voodou priests, with Dutty also serving as leader of the Maroons, gave space to a gathered crowd of enslaved people to air their grievances. Speeches against enslavement were made, and the two leaders gave the signal for a revolt to begin.Within the week, plantations all over Haiti were burning. On the night of August 21, a tropical storm began rolling onto the island. Taking the thunder and lightning as auspicious signs, the enslaved population escalated and began killing plantation owners and their families. The carnage was brutal from the beginning, as enslaved Black Haitians had developed an extreme hatred for white planters due to their cruel treatment.Enslaved revolutionaries, who over the next few months came to number around 100,000, took control of the entire Northern Province of Haiti and killed over 4,000 white people. One hundred eighty sugar plantations had been destroyed, and hundreds of coffee and indigo plantations were also razed.Led by former slave Toussaint LOuverture, the enslaved rebels held a third of Haiti by 1792. While the French attempted to send troops to quell the rebellion, none of their campaigns were successful, and it seemed that the fighting would continue.British & Spanish InvolvementToussaint LOuverture by John Barlow, 1805. Source: National Portrait Gallery, LondonIn 1793, during the French Revolutionary Wars, France declared war on Great Britain. The grands blancs of Saint Domingue initially decided to ally themselves with the British. This alliance served as a play to protect slavery in the colony, as Great Britain enforced enslavement in all of its Caribbean colonies.However, the British could not conquer the island, and their forces suffered from inexperience and disease. Thus, when the Spanish invaded Saint Domingue, they allied with the rebels and served to bolster the British forces against France. Spain and Britain provided LOuvertures troops with supplies and weapons, eventually pushing the newly Republican France into an agreement: emancipation.In late 1793 and early 1794, France abolished slavery in all of its colonies and allowed Haiti to send representatives to its National Assembly. Though Haitian forces had been allied with Spain and Britain, LOuverture and his generals abruptly severed ties with the Spanish in May 1794 and turned on the British. LOuverture and his troops allied themselves with France and soon expelled the Spanish from Haiti.The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, 1795. Source: lyseThe British, although they held on for a few more years, were also eventually expelled from Haiti. Their troops had been decimated by yellow fever, and they officially withdrew from the conflict in 1798.Meanwhile, the Haitian rebels had secured victory in the interim. The French Constitution, which was enforced until Napoleon Bonaparte took over the country, declared slavery abolished and granted full rights of French citizenship to all colonists regardless of skin color.While the British and the Spanish helped to wear down the French government alongside the Haitian rebels, in the end, both were overpowered by LOuvertures forces. The Haitian army secured their freedom and continued their campaign, capturing the Spanish-controlled portion of Hispaniola in 1801. LOuverture declared himself leader for life, abolished slavery, and allowed for Haitian control over Santo Domingo until 1844.While victory had been secured and Haitians successfully recognized as French citizens, Bonapartes empiric aspirations held something new in store for the former colony.Napoleonic Rule & Reimposition of SlaveryGeneral Charles Leclerc, brother-in-law of Napoleon Bonaparte. Source: The Haitian Revolution Timeline/Wikimedia CommonsIn 1801, after his declaration to be made governor-for-life, Toussaint LOuverture and his government released their constitution, which conceded autonomy to all Black Haitians and called for Saint Domingue to become a free sovereign Black state.In response to this declaration, the new Emperor of the French, Napoleon Bonaparte, sent some 43,000 troops, led by his brother-in-law, Charles Leclerc, to retake the island for France. The French troops were also under a secretive order to reestablish slavery in Saint Domingue. LOuverture was to be treated with deference until the French base had been established, at which time he was to be arrested, and any of his troops were to be shot.When the French arrived in February 1802, they attempted to take the port city of Le Cap. Rather than surrender, Haitians set the city ablaze. LOuverture and one of his generals, Henri Christophe, were named enemies of the French Republic.General Henri Christophe of Haiti. Source: The SpectatorFighting ensued, both in traditional battle and, mostly, on the part of the Haitians, in guerilla warfare tactics. The Haitian army continued overpowering the French when the rainy season struck, and another outbreak of yellow fever resulted in disaster for the French troops. Five thousand soldiers died, with 5,000 more being hospitalized for the disease.This progress for the Haitians was overturned when General Christophe defected to the French Army, bringing the majority of his troops with him. On May 6, 1802, LOuverture was promised freedom if he gave up the rest of his forces for integration into the French army, and he did so. However, LOuverture was betrayed by the French and was instead arrested and sent to prison in France, where he later died.The tides were shifting for the French, but they would not remain so for long. Haitian troops were tired of the French imposition and fought against their forcible allies again beginning in late 1802.The Haitian War of IndependenceBattle of Vertires II, 1803 by Ulrick Jean-Pierre, 1995. Source: H-NetWhen turning on the French, the Haitian army was led by Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who took to fighting wholeheartedly against the islands occupation. While Leclerc died of yellow fever in November 1802, his successor, the Vicomte de Rochambeau, waged an even more sadistic campaign against the Haitians, attempting near-genocidal levels of mass murder.The French were being decimated by yellow fever, but Dessalines troops responded in kind to the violence perpetrated by Rochambeau. For every group of Haitians killed, Dessalines killed groups of French colonists. At the same time, battles raged on for many months until May 1803, when the British declared war on France again and sailed to the Caribbean.Attack and take of the Crte--Pierrot (March 24, 1802) by Auguste Raffet. Source: BlackPastThe British and Haitian forces began overpowering the French, whose numbers were dwindling due to violence and disease. Though reinforcements were sent, they were no match for the Royal Navy and the Haitian rebels combined. The Haitians fought with reckless abandon, and it was clear that the British were not budging either.In November 1803, the French retreated, with Rochambeau having delayed the necessary return until there were very few remaining troops in his army. French forces were defeated by the end of 1803, and Haiti, under the leadership of Dessalines, was finally free.On January 1, 1804, Dessalines declared independence and renamed the former colony Haiti after the islands name in the native Arawak language. Now, nation-building could begin.The Impact of the Haitian RevolutionThe Haitian Constitution of 1805. Source: Haiti conomieThe Haitian Revolution established the first free Black Caribbean nation. However, the path to freedom was rocky, with many casualties and a decimated economic and political structure left in its wake.To recover, Haitian leaders turned to agriculture, and the former colony slipped back into its pre-revolutionary stratified ways. For many years, the country was even split between the working class and the elites, with two leaders ruling over the separate parts of the island.Eventually, Jean-Pierre Boyer, a mulatto man and part of the new nations elite, took over rule and began reunification of the country. However, this would not prevent the constant threat of French invasion. The French offered Haiti a deal in 1825, which would ultimately lead to the economic impoverishment of the island nation well into the future.The once again monarchical country of France, led by Charles X, demanded that Haiti pay reparations to its former colonial power in exchange for recognition of independence and thus reentry into the global political and economic market.Boyer agreed to pay the French 150 million francs in reparations to become officially recognized as a nation by a world power. This sum, though reduced to 90 million in 1838, would take Haiti until 1947 to pay off. The Haitian government had to take out loans from French banks to pay the debt. While this saved Haiti from the threat of French invasion, it made the country dependent on its former colonizers to remain afloat.While the Haitian Revolution was a massive step forward in the fight against slavery and free Black nations, the outcome was economically disastrous. The country of Haiti remained poor and indebted long into its first century of independence. Occupation, dictatorship, war, and instability followed. After instability righted by the United Nations in 2004, Haiti was rocked by a massive earthquake and subsequent cholera outbreak in 2010, with years of elected officials failing to stabilize the government afterward.Place de lIndpendance in Gonaves, with its monument to Dessalines, leading Haiti towards freedom. Source: Age of RevolutionsHaiti, which started as Saint Domingue and is often called the Pearl of the Antilles, was Frances richest colonial holding in the Americas. However, it was built on the backs of enslaved people, and the Haitian Revolution is one of the most successful examples of enslaved revolt. Haitians fought for a free state where they could rule as they pleased under the watch of no one, but the country was still oppressed after independence, which took a toll on the future of the nation.The Haitian Revolution was a symbol of hope in a world that enslaved Black people for decades after the revolutions success. It is still a reminder that freedom costs nations much, and colonization can and did have a lasting impact on the Americas. The Haitian Revolution is remembered for its successes, though in reality, freedom is a much more complicated matter that leads to problems wherever it is fought.