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The Black Jacobins
Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution
- Read in 21 minutes
- Audio & text available
- Contains 14 key ideas
Synopsis
The Black Jacobins traces the remarkable history of the revolution in the French colony of San Domingo (modern day Haiti). It describes the events that helped the revolution become the first successful slave rebellion in history.
In particular, The Black Jacobins views the events through the prism of the revolution’s greatest figure, Toussaint L’Ouverture. It shows how he, a former slave who was inspired by the ideals of the French Revolution, successfully defeated the European empires and helped to destroy the brutal practice of slavery in San Domingo.
Key idea 1 of 14
The very prosperous French colony of San Domingo was sustained by the brutal practice of slavery.
In the late seventeenth century, France acquired the colony of San Domingo (modern-day Haiti) in the West Indies. Over the next century, this colony was to prove very prosperous for the French. Its soil was fertile, allowing crops like indigo, cotton, sugar and coffee to be grown.
Yet, there was a problem: to grow and harvest these crops, a huge amount of labor was needed, and this wasn’t readily available. The original native population of the island had all but been wiped out by European colonists, and the climate made it almost impossible for European laborers to carry out the back-breaking work.
The solution to this problem was to use African slaves. In San Domingo, along with the other European colonies in the Americas, huge numbers of African people were forcibly transported from their homelands to work as slaves. The scale of the slave trade was enormous; by the late eighteenth century, there were about half-a-million slaves in San Domingo alone.
Life for the slaves was incredibly brutal. Although the French government laid down rules about how they must be treated, these rules were more often than not ignored. The colonists saw the slaves as their property to do with as they wished. They forced the slaves who worked in the fields to do incredibly exhausting tasks from dawn until dusk in the intense heat.
They also subjected their “property” to the most inhumane treatment. Punishments for even the smallest of misdemeanours were harsh, and whippings and beatings became very common. For worse crimes, the punishments were horrific; for example, there were even cases of slaves being filled with gunpowder and blown up.
This violent and degrading system kept the colony of San Domingo prosperous in its raw materials, allowing many settlers to become very rich.
Key ideas in this title
- The very prosperous French colony of San Domingo was sustained by the brutal practice of slavery.
- The “free” population in San Domingo was made up of various competing social classes.
- Although the slaves in San Domingo had often fought against the system, they lacked the leadership needed to succeed.
- The French Revolutionary ideals of liberté, egalité and fraternité spread to San Domingo with explosive results.
- In Toussaint L’Ouverture the slaves found someone with the leadership qualities to challenge the system of slavery.
- In 1791, the slaves of San Domingo rebelled, and Toussaint L’Ouverture soon became one of their leaders.
- Toussaint L’Ouverture never sacrificed his aim of the abolition of slavery on San Domingo.
- Toussaint L’Ouverture soon became the leading figure in San Domingo.
- Toussaint L’Ouverture attempted to create a prosperous and highly cultured society in San Domingo.
- Toussaint L’Ouverture’s desire to create a multi-racial society in San Domingo alienated some of his black supporters.
- Under Napoleon, the French government invaded San Domingo with disastrous results for Toussaint L’Ouverture.
- The arrest of Toussaint and French attempts to restore slavery led the population of San Domingo to declare independence.
- The slave revolution was the result of the ideas of the French Revolution and the unique skills of Toussaint L’Ouverture.
- Final summary
