The Haitian Revolution as the First Real Revolution Against Slavery in America

Many of us do not take the meaning of the word 'slavery' very seriously. The reason is most probably because we haven't personally experienced the life of a slave between the 15th and the 18th century. Slavery involves lynching, whipping, beating, being captured, excessively working unwillingly, rape, and death. African people were taken away from their homes, captured, and sold to white people as slaves. According to Bash, in Azevedo's 'African Studies. A Survery of Africa and the African Diaspora', at least 20 million Africans were captured for slavery and sent to continents such as Europe, South America, and North America, South and North America are part of something called the New World. Europe went to Africa to look for resource to finance capital because they went through the Industrial Revolution, and The New World went to Africa to look for labor force to work on their fields.

Africans were chosen as slaves because they were considered stronger than the normal human being, they were cheap to purchase, they were fit for fields work because they already were farmers on their plantations, and also because they were easy to capture whenever they tried to run away. African slaves were very mistreated. They were subject to something called 'The Slave Code' which is a list of rules, regulations, and restrictions upon African slaves. Some of those rules, regulations and restrictions were that slaves weren't aloud to have contact with white people, to read or touch books, even the bible, to legally marry, to own property, to gather in groups, to run away, and much more. Punishments forviolating any of those rules could result in a beating treatment, or even to death.

During the Middle Passage, which is the travel of African Slaves from Africa to their destinations on boats, slaves were very mistreated. Men were put naked to avoid mutineries, women were raped, the slaves fell sick and some died, the boats were attacked by pirates, and storms could destroy the boats. Some slaves even gave up and committed suicide because of the lack of hope and the bad treatment they received. The bad treatment of slaves during the Middle Passage still caused the mutinies that white people tried to prevent. Examples of ships on which slaves revolted are The Creole Ship Uprising in 1841, Little George Ship Revolt in June 1730, and the Amistad revolution on July 2nd, 1839 (Holloway). The focus of this research paper is the Amistad boat revolution and its relationship with Haiti as the first black republic, and the abolition of slavery in the New World.

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The Amistad revolt is the most famous slave ship insurrection of the nineteenth century. On July 2nd, 1839, 53 Africans were captured on a boat called the Amistad. They were captured by two men called Jose Ruiz and Pedro Montes (Berkeley, 2011). Those 53 African slaves broke out of their chains and revolted. They killed two crewmembers and forced the rest to leave the boat. They were aiming to return to their homeland but were tricked and went from Cuba to New York. A lot of legal fights went on and the US Supreme Court gave them their freedom. The relationship between Amistad and Haiti is that not all the slaves went along to New York. The Amistad boat stopped in Haiti and a few slaves stayed in Haiti because they believe in the Haitian Revolution led by Toussaint L'ouverture, started in 1791.

Toussaint L'ouverture along with mulattoes (children of white men and black slave women who were considered free because their white father felt guilty), and other slaves from the Amistad boat, fought against the white supremacy, the French. The revolution started since 1760 but officially went into effect in 1791. In 1803, Toussaint was deceived by the French and sent to France to die in prison. His death did not stop Toussaint's fellows. Jean-Jacques Dessalines led to the final fight and defeated the French. He then changed St Dominique, Haiti's original name, the Haiti. The Republic of Haiti was declared independent in 1804. Alex Dupuy from the Wesleyan University believes that the determination of the slaves to be free is one of the reasons the Haitian Revolution was successful. The leaders were able to raise a great army and forces to defeat the French.

The Haitian Revolution is considered one of the strongest revolution which resulted in the abolition of slavery in the New World. The strength and determination of the people fighting for their freedom inspired other nations to fight for their own freedom, and also scared the invaders. Thomas Jefferson, one of the United States president did not accept or recognized Haiti as an Independent nation. "Although France recognized Haitian independence in 1825. Haitians would have to wait until 1862 for the United States to recognize Haiti's status as a sovereign, independent nation." (US Department of States, Office of the Historian)

There was never a successful rebellion before the Haitian Revolution. The revolution created something called the "Haitian fear" which is fear amongst slave owners of the slave rebellion in Haiti. Slaves of other nations looked up to Haiti and also attempted revolutions too. One example is the Jamaica's revolution in 1831 scenes looks exactly like the Haitian revolution. Another example is the Rebellion in 1800 led by Gaber in Virginia.

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