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In 1600, The French claimed territory on the island of hispaniola and named its new colony saint-Domingue. The French people developed large plantations and brought back African Americans to Saint-Domingue to be slaves.
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In the late 1780s, Saint-Domingue had a slave population of about half a million. Also eight times that number of free colonist.
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In 1789 the French Revolution had started and that helped to inspire the Haitian Revolution. Saint-Domingue’s white population began a movement for self-government and free trade (the right to trade directly with countries other than France.) Their goal of control over the colony soon was challenged by the free middle-class blacks.
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In 1791 The free blacks were failing to make headway by peaceful means so they launched a civil war in Saint-Domingue’s southern and western provinces
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A huge slave revolt by far the largest in the history of America had broken out in August 1791. The slaves destroyed plantations and towns destroying much of northern Saint-Domingue.
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In April 1792, the French government granted Saint-Domingue’s free blacks racial equality.
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Years after the slave revolt, France was dependent on an army of former slaves built up by Toussaint Louverture. Louverture was a former slave who became the leading general in the French army in Saint-Domingue.
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In 1796 Louverture became lieutenant governor of Saint-Domingue. In 1797 Toussaint Louverture became commander in chief of his army. In 1800, he defeated André Rigaud, a mixed-race general and rival, for control of the southern part of the colony.
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In 1799 Napoleon Bonaparte came to take over france. In 1802 Napoleon Bonaparte sent an army to Saint- Domingue. The army went to recover the French Rule, Racial inequality and slavery.
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In 1802 the French had captured Napoleon Bonaparte. A former slave and Army general Jean-Jacques Dessalines Made him a leader of the rebels. In 1803 the rebels defeated the French.
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On Jan 1, 1804 Dessalines had declared Saint-Domingue an Independent country of Haiti. In 1806 Dessalines was murdered. In 1820 Jean-pierre Boyd had reunited the country.
