I chose to response to the first Prompt in this paper. In the ‘The Kingdom of This World,’ the author describes how Haitian slaves have been abused and decided to rise up against slave owners and ultimately win freedom and rights. The main factor that caused the revolution and the war in Haiti was slavery. The low status and inhuman treatment led to the outbreak of bloody wars.
The Haitian revolution originated mainly in 1697. After France established colonial rule in the western part of Haiti, it lost black slaves from Africa. A large number of black slaves worked year after year in the slave owners’ estates and lived the most humiliating under the brutal policies of the French colonists. The raging fire of the French Revolution in the 18th century ignited the anger of the Haitian people, and the American Revolutionary War and the French Revolution quickly awakened them. In 1791, countless black slaves, mixed races, and free men united and rebelled under the leadership of the black slave Toussaint L’Ouverture. They raised their weapons and rushed to the slave owners’ relics for revenge. In the face of this sudden and fierce struggle, the French colonists were unable to resist and fled, and the insurgents took the opportunity to recover large areas of land. However, in 1793, the Spanish colonial authorities in the eastern part of Haitian island colluded with the British colonial army and took the opportunity to enter the western part of Haiti. Toussaint L’Ouverture led more than 4,000 insurgents to fight guerrilla warfare with the colonists. After 10 years of resistance, the insurgents finally won and all the colonists were driven out of Haiti.
A new Haiti was born in 1801, and the entire Haitian island re-unified and established a revolutionary regime dominated by Toussaint L’Ouverture. In 1802, Napoleon appointed Leclerc as the commander and launched an attack on Haitian island. The current enemy, Toussaint L’Ouverture once again united the Haitian people and launched a final duel with the French colonists. This time, the entire Haitian people made up their minds. They burned their houses, destroyed their homes and property and vowed not to let the aggression take a shot. Then they were only hiding in the mountains and wild forests with food and water. When the army of Leclerc arrived here, Haitian island had become an empty island. They not only did not receive any strategic supplies, but also suffered attacks from Haitians. The French army quickly became trapped. At this time, Leclerc made a conspiracy, arrested Toussaint L’Ouverture, and sent him to French. A year later, the great black leader died in Napoleon’s prison. After the news of the killing of Toussaint L’Ouverture, the whole of Haiti was shaken. Thousands of people raised their weapons and flocked to the French colonists. They took the determination to take revenge and beat the French colonists. In just one year, more than 30,000 French colonists were killed, and Leclerc lost his life because of illness. In 1803, Napoleon was finally forced to give up control of Haiti. Haiti officially declared independence in 1804, and a truly independent country was born. Its birth ushered in the era of the collapse of European colonial power and ignited the flames of the Latin American independence movement. The spirit of Toussaint L’Ouverture will inspire the people who strive for independence and freedom.
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The main characters in this novel are Ti Noel and Mackandal, and both of them are slaves. Ti Noel was a slave to the plantations in northern Haiti, and he participated in a rebellion against French colonists. He was lost to the Cuban plantation owner by his master. When he returned to Haiti, he found that Henri Christophe was in power and made the black compatriots a slave. While Mackandal was another plantation slave, he discovered a variety of plants and planned to poison whites and their livestock, but eventually he was arrested and burned alive. From the actions of these two characters, we can be seen that the slaves hate the slave owners, even if they have plans to poison the white slave owners. ‘Given supreme authority by the chiefs from the other shore, he had been elected to proclaim the crusade of extermination against whites and create a great empire of free blacks in Saint-Domingue. He had thousands of slaves as followers. Nobody could now stop the march of the poison’ (Carpentier, p. 22). The colonists crushed black slaves and were actually mixed races and free blacks, so they were very tortured. ”To eat blacks!’ said the sailor, laughing over the barks’ (Carpentier, p.59). This is also the dark side of the Haitian independence movement, and there are serious ethnic conflicts between them. During the revolution, Toussaint L’Ouverture was influenced by the Enlightenment, with strong racial equality and democratic ideas, against black revenge, and allowed whites who were not hostile to the revolution to continue to work on the island. However, the French government trapped him, making the consciousness of racial revenge prevail in the long-pressed blacks. Toussaint’s successor, Dessalines, was a slave, which led him to hate whites and slaughtered whites during his reign. According to a credible record, Dessalines is known for the ordering of the execution of all French people on the island. ‘This systematic genocide is known as the 1804 Haiti massacre. The massacre, which took place in the entire territory of Haiti, was carried out from early February 1804 until 22 April 1804, and resulted in the deaths of between 3,000 and 5,000 people of all ages and genders’ (Girard 2011, p.319-322). The revolution turned into a bloody genocide and it happened between each other. The colonists did not treat the slaves and mixed-race people as life, which caused dissatisfaction and anger among the slaves and mixed races. The cruelty of the colonists led to the aversion and revenge of the slaves and the mixed races, and the massive killings in the revolution. In the Haitian revolution, both sides paid a painful price, and casualties were a huge number.
I think that in fact some slaves and mixed races do not want to provoke war and they want peace. They just hope to get equal treatment and fair human rights; for example, Toussaint L’Ouverture. However, most slaves treated inhumanely. The white colonists developed racially discriminatory laws, imposed restrictions on the rights and socialities of people of color, and built a harsh class system. Before the outbreak of the Haitian revolution, Santo Domingo was divided into three classes according to skin color and bloodlines. The dominant white colonists, followed by mixed-race, free blacks, and black slaves were at the bottom. It is precisely because of this division that slaves feel inequitable, so they uprising in order to be able to equal citizenship. Slavery is the most important factor leading to the revolution. The discriminated black slaves and mixed races would rather sacrifice their lives and resist. This shows that the treatment they suffered at the time has reached an unbearable level. It proves how severe and cruel the division and hierarchy of society at that time was. Haiti is the first black republic of the Americas, and it also has a certain influence and change on slavery.
