The Haitian Revolution occurred when several slaves in French controlled Haiti revolted against their masters. The slaves burnt down several plantations and even light the capital on fire. Clashes between white racists and free blacks caused the town of Port-u-Prince to burn down. Several slave revolts have happened before, but most of these were ether put down or the slaves fled to the jungle and became Cimaroons (covered in a previous post). Haiti was a valuable sugar plantation colony for the French government, and they used slaves as a workforce. What made the slave revolts in the Haitian revolution is that the French government was distracted by the French Revolution. Also, rival European powers in Spain and Britain aided the slave rebels. The ensuring war evolved into a tit-for-tat series of massacres between the French forces and the slave rebels. Soon the slaves were victorious, and the white population was massacred. Haiti became the 2nd country after the United States to become independent from European powers.
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