The document summarizes the Haitian Revolution from 1791 to 1803. It describes the pre-revolution conditions in Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti) where 500,000 slaves produced much of the world's sugar but were in revolt against their wealthy French owners. The revolution erupted as political instability in France opened up opportunities for the slaves, free blacks, and other groups to fight for control over the island in the aftermath of the French Revolution's declaration of equal rights. The scale of the slave rebellion was unprecedented and unthinkable at the time.

1. The Haitian Revolution
1791 - 1803

5. Pre-Revolution Conditions in St. Domingue
• 500,000 slaves producing 40% of the world’s sugar
• Slaves outnumber all other groups 10 to 1
• Declaration of the Rights of Man, 1789 – all are born free, due process, etc
• France is unstable in the years following the French Revolution
• Wealthy plantation owners, free blacks, middle class white (Petit Blancs) all
struggling for control of the island
• The French government gives control to the wealthy landowners (Grand
Blancs).
• Free blacks revolt
• All sides arm slaves

6. An “Unthinkable Revolution”
Unthinkable, before, during, and after
•No abolitionists ever envisioned this sort of thing
•Attempts were made by other slave-holding nations to conceal it as it
occurred
•It was unthinkable after because didn’t fit into historians framework about
the age of revolution. It was erased.