Leclerc dies during the yellow-fever crisis

Leclerc had Toussaint Louverture arrested after inviting him to a meeting, despite the recent settlement and assurances of safety. Toussaint and members of his family were sent to France and...

As French repression intensified and fears of restored slavery spread, General Charles Bélair raised the standard of revolt. This renewed uprising drew on rural networks and the laboring population...

After crossing the Atlantic in French custody, Toussaint Louverture arrived at Fort de Joux in the Jura. He was isolated from his family and political community and held without trial. His...

French authorities tried Charles and Sanité Bélair by military commission and executed them at Cap-Français. Sanité, a Black woman revolutionary and officer, demanded to be shot as a soldier rather...

Alexandre Pétion and Clervaux deserted the French side and joined the insurgency, followed by troops under their command. Their choice reflected mounting fear that French rule would strip Black and...

Toussaint Louverture died at Fort de Joux after months of imprisonment without trial. His death in exile did not end the revolution. The movement he had helped shape continued under leaders and...

At the Arcahaie congress, revolutionary leaders adopted a flag formed by removing the white band from the French tricolor and joining blue and red. Haitian tradition associates the act with Dessalines...

The Indigenous Army under Jean-Jacques Dessalines and François Capois defeated Rochambeau’s forces at Vertières near Cap-Français. The victory followed years of resistance, epidemic disease, and...

At Fort-Dauphin, Dessalines, Christophe, and Clervaux signed a declaration vowing that Saint-Domingue would no longer live under French domination. This November proclamation preceded the formal Act...

At Gonaïves, Jean-Jacques Dessalines and other revolutionary leaders proclaimed independence, formally breaking with France and naming the new state Haiti, from the Indigenous name Ayiti. The Act of...