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1.

In 1789 the French West Indian colony of Saint Domingue was viewed by Europeans as the greatest slave colony in the world. It produced roughly 40 percent of the sugar and 60 percent of all the coffee imported to Europe, making huge profits for France and its citizens. By 1804, Saint Domingue would become the new country of Haiti, an independent Caribbean republic, free from colonial rule. The fight for independence began in August 1791 when enslaved people revolted. The struggle lasted for 12 years. 

2.

Conditions for enslaved Africans on Saint Domingue were extremely harsh. On sugar plantations, for example, enslaved Africans were forced to work for 18 hours in the mills and slept for around 4 hours. Their food rations were not enough to survive on, so they had to spend the little free time they had growing crops. Enslaved women have been recorded as becoming so tired in their working day that some forgot to let go of the sugar canes as they fed them into the mill, their hands were caught in the machinery and crushed before anyone could help them. 

3.

Enslaved Africans found many ways to resist and rebel. They would travel miles to sing, dance and talk together. To practise the religious customs and celebrations of their various African traditions and belief systems. This practice was actually strengthened by the fact that the high death rate on Saint Domingue resulted in high numbers of enslaved Africans arriving, reinforcing traditions and stories of home, reminding enslaved Africans of their histories, families and languages before they were forced into a new life far from their homes. Enslaved Africans also resisted by running away. Runaways were known as Maroons. By 1751 it is estimated that there were 3,000 Maroons in Saint Domingue. These Maroons would hide in the forests, savannahs or even in plain sight in towns, pretending to be free. There is evidence that some men would flee, take time to set up small farms and their wives and children would follow. Enslaved Africans put themselves at great risk when running away, if caught, punishments would be brutal.

4.

The Maroons practiced Vodou as their religion. Vodou combined ideas and practices from West Africa with Catholicism, and gave enslaved Africans in Saint Domingue a sense of community, identity and belonging. One belief was that the spirit of an enslaved African would be returned to West Africa after death. This encouraged resistance as the thought of dying and returning home was better than attempting to survive on Saint Domingue. 

5.

Priests and priestesses emerged to lead this new increasingly united group. These included Cecile Fatiman and Dutty Boukman. Dutty was born in Jamaica, he was a driver and later a coachman on a plantation. Known as the ‘bookman’ because he could read, he was an inspiring and popular Vodou leader. He was an intellectual who understood the political and economic situation on Saint Domingue very astutely. He realised that the destruction of what gave the French colonisers their wealth – the plantations – would be crucial to the freedom of enslaved Africans. In 1791, he helped rouse a huge revolutionary uprising on Saint Domingue. 

6.

On August 14 1791, 200 enslaved Africans, from over 100 plantations on Saint Domingue, took part in a Vodou ceremony at Bois Caiman in the North of the island. During a thunderstorm Cecile Fatiman began the ceremony by sacrificing an animal, at the same time Dutty delivered a prayer spoken in creole calling the enslaved to rise in revolution. Dutty called on Ogun, the yoruba god of iron and war. So inspirational was this speech that many who were gathered made a blood pact. They would break their chains or die.  A few nights later rebellion began on Boukman’s plantation as enslaved people set fire to crops and buildings. Plantations across Saint Domingue follow. 200 sugar refineries and 1,800 coffee plantations are burned. Two thousand Europeans lose their lives, ten thousand enslaved Africans lose theirs. 

7.

Dutty Boukman was killed in the fighting and his head was stuck on a pike with a placard: "This is the head of Boukman, chief of the rebels." As the French battled to regain control over the island, Africans were massacred in their thousands, even those who had not revolted. The result was that all enslaved on the island, nervous, scared or fearless, knew their only hope was revolution. In a few weeks the insurgents had grown to nearly 100,000.  Boukman and Fatiman’s plan did not succeed completely, but the determination of those who fought to establish their freedom, and the scope and organisation of this revolt meant that, in 1804, Saint Domingue became Haiti (the land of high mountains) an independent country.  A country led by formerly enslaved Africans, free from European control.  Haiti was the first country in the world to abolish and permanently outlaw slavery and the slave trade from the first day of its existence. Boukman was the first in a line of great African leaders who transformed the conflict in Haiti and ultimately won its freedom. After the death of Boukman, the baton was passed Toussaint L’Ouverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines.