French civil commissioners arrive amid revolt and colonial crisis

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...

Enslaved people rose across plantations in the northern plain, burning estates and attacking the slaveholding regime. The uprising was organized through networks built by enslaved Africans and their...

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...

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...

The Convention abolished slavery in all French colonies and declared formerly enslaved people citizens. Saint-Domingue’s mass uprising and the local emancipation decrees had made the old order...

Under the treaty ending Spain’s war with France, Spain ceded its eastern colony of Santo Domingo to France. This diplomatic transfer brought the whole island under nominal French sovereignty, but...