Description
The French Revolution of 1789 had enormous repercussions in France’s Caribbean colonies. In August 1791, slaves in the colony of Saint-Domingue staged a massive revolt, setting in train the chain of events that ultimately led to the founding of Haiti in 1804. In 1792, the de facto government of revolutionary France sent commissioners to the colony to enforce a decree by the National Assembly that enfranchised free blacks and mulattoes, but that did not yet free the colony’s slaves. Under growing pressure from the revolt and threatened by ...