Haitian Revolution
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1791–1793:
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| History of Haiti |
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| Pre-Columbian Haiti (before 1492) |
| Captaincy General of Santo Domingo (1492–1625) |
| Taíno genocide |
| Saint-Domingue (1625–1804) |
| First Empire of Haiti (1804–1806) |
| North Haiti (1806–1820) |
| South Haiti (1806–1820) |
| Republic of Haiti (1820–1849) |
| Second Empire of Haiti (1849–1859) |
| Republic of Haiti (1859–1957) |
| Duvalier dynasty (1957–1986) |
| Anti-Duvalier protest movement |
| Republic of Haiti (1986–present) |
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The Haitian Revolution, also known as the Haitian War of Independence, was a successful insurrection by enslaved Africans against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue, now the sovereign state of Haiti. The revolution was one of the only known slave rebellions in human history that led to the founding of a state which was both free from slavery (though not from forced labour) and ruled by former captives.
Vincent Ogé's 1790 revolt by free mulattoes (of mixed French and African ancestry) pressured the French Revolutionary government to grant them citizenship in May 1791, leading to further clashes with slave owners that destabilized Saint-Domingue and led to the slave revolt on 22 August 1791, which ended with the former colony's independence on 1 January 1804, with the ex-slave Toussaint Louverture emerging as its most prominent general. The successful revolution was a defining moment in the history of the Atlantic World and the revolution's effects on the institution of slavery were felt throughout the Americas. The end of French rule and the abolition of slavery in the former colony was followed by a successful defense of the freedoms the former slaves had won, and with the collaboration of already free people of color, of their independence from white Europeans.
The revolution was the largest slave uprising since Spartacus' unsuccessful revolt against the Roman Republic nearly 1,900 years earlier, and challenged long-held European beliefs about alleged black inferiority and about slaves' ability to achieve and maintain their own freedom. The rebels' organizational capacity and tenacity under pressure inspired stories that shocked and frightened slave owners in the hemisphere.
Compared to other Atlantic revolutions, the events in Haiti have received comparatively little public attention in retrospect: historian Michel-Rolph Trouillot characterizes the historiography of the Haitian Revolution as being "silenced" by that of the French Revolution.