Some Dates Concerning the Haitian Revolution

• 1763 most of the petit blancs came after this date and accounted for about 50% of whites in 1789. They caused much of the trouble with the slaves.
• 1771 Free men of color: 6,000. white: 18,000.
• 1787 opening of road from Cap Francois to Port-au-Prince
• 1789 28,000 free men of color 30,000 whites
• 1790, March 8. Assembly in Paris voted to allow the colonial whites to determine the colony's political life without people of color.
• 1791, Feb. 26. Oge and Chavannes killed.
• 1791, May 15. Paris Assembly changed all free men of color with 2 free parents were accorded full rights. After this move the whites thought about separation from France.
• 1791, Aug. 22-23. Slaves revolted.
• 1791, Sept. 24. Paris Assembly changed back and revoked May 15th decree.
• 1792, March 28. Paris Assembly reversed again. All free men of color have full citizen rights.
• 1792, April 4. French king signed the May 15th decree.
• 1792, July 5. Whites and free people of color took over P-a-P.
• 1792, Dec. 2. Open fighting broke out between radical whites and Sonthonax' forces including men of color.
• 1793, Jan/Feb. After Rochambeau's departure (Jan. 2), Laveaux led an expedition against slaves. By Feb. 1793 northern plain was relatively quiet. Double triumph for Sonthonax:
  • white radicals
  • black slaves both neutralized.
• 1793, Feb. 1. France declared war on Britain.
• 1793, April. Sonthonax and Polverel took P-a-P from whites. Began to put free men of color into place.
• 1793, June 21. To defeat Galbaud the commissioners promised freedom to blacks who would fight for "the Republic." This was the first real move toward the slaves.
• 1793, Aug. 29. Sonthonax freed the slaves. "It was the most radical step of the Haitian Revolution and perhaps even of the French Revolution." (page 79 Stein.)
• 1793, late: British and Spanish deeply involved.
  • encouraged slaves to get freedom from them
  • encouraged whites + free men of color to join against the revolution for return of slavery.
• 1794, Feb 4. National Convention of France abolished slavery.
• 1794, May. Toussaint defected to the Republican side.
• 1795. Treaty of Basle gave France Santo Domingo and ceased Spanish hostilities.
• 1796, March 20. Affaire du 30 Ventose. Villate, mulatto, put Laveaux in jail. Blacks helped free him. He made Toussaint Lieutenant governor.
• 1798, April. General Hedouville came to try to control Toussaint.
• 1799, Nov. 9. 18th Brumaire. VIII. Napoleon's coup d'etat.
• 1802, May 12. Britain and France back at War. British ships played role.
• 1802, May 18. Flag. Congress of Archaie.
• Period: Stein: p. 99 says Toussaint's military victories for Spanish were not due to military prowess.
• Period: First phase of revolution:
  1. Slave uprising; eventual quieting. Only in North.
  2. Triumph of Sonthonax' defense of law of April 4.
  3. Declaration of war on Britain
  4. preparation for invasion.
• Period: 3 groups:
  1. Royalists
  2. Republicans
  3. Independists
• Period: The colonists were not very loyal to France and despised the trade restrictions. They carried on rather open illegal trade with the British North Americans and British West Indies. They saw the revolution as a way to break with France. Whites wanted political revolution without social revolution.
• Period: First aim for planters was to break France's monopoly on their trade.
• Petit blancs: p. 28 of Stein for a good section on them.

Return to top