Mass uprising begins in northern Saint-Domingue

The Treaty of Ryswick, signed by France and Spain among other powers, formalized a European settlement that recognized French possession of the western part of Hispaniola. The agreement treated the...

François Mackandal, an African-born maroon and organizer associated with a wide anticolonial resistance network, was condemned and executed by French authorities at Cap-Français. Colonial records...

France’s Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen proclaimed liberty and equality as universal principles, but colonial slavery and racial hierarchy remained in place. Enslaved people, free...

The French National Assembly voted to extend political rights to free men of color born to free parents. The measure did not emancipate enslaved people and excluded many free people of color whose...

Haitian historical memory places a Vodou ceremony led by Dutty Boukman and Cécile Fatiman at Bois Caïman on the night of 14–15 August. It is remembered as a moment of collective commitment and...

The Legislative Assembly reaffirmed full political rights for free men of color born of free parents and extended the measure to free women of color. It addressed racial inequality among free...

Léger-Félicité Sonthonax, Étienne Polverel, and Jean-Antoine Ailhaud arrived in Saint-Domingue with troops to enforce the rights of free people of color and restore French authority. They initially...

As French republican forces faced revolt and foreign intervention, commissioner Sonthonax issued a measure promising freedom to enslaved people who joined the republican army. The offer was limited...

Under pressure from the uprising and the struggle to retain the colony, Sonthonax proclaimed freedom for enslaved people in the northern province. The decree was a decisive local abolition, won in a...

Commissioner Étienne Polverel issued emancipation measures covering the colony’s western and southern provinces, completing the local abolition begun in the north. Proclamations differed in timing and...