Fact Finder - History

The Haitian Revolution was a successful anti-slavery and anti-colonial insurrection by self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue. It is the only slave uprising that led to the founding of a state which was both free from slavery and ruled by non-whites and former captives. Led by figures like Toussaint Louverture and later Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the rebels defeated the forces of Napoleon Bonaparte. When Haiti declared independence in 1804, it became the second republic in the Americas and the first to permanently abolish slavery. The event sent shockwaves through the Atlantic world, frightening slaveholders in the United States and elsewhere while providing a beacon of hope for abolitionists. It also led France to sell the Louisiana Territory to the U.S., as Napoleon could no longer maintain his American empire after losing his most profitable colony.