How Toussaint Louverture Rose from Slavery to Lead the Haitian Revolution history.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from history.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
During the lengthy uprising in Saint-Domingue, people with wealth — both whites and free people of color — fled the island. Ten thousand of those people eventually migrated to New Orleans, doubling the city's population. These immigrants brought with them their transportable wealth: enslaved Africans.
Together, these people fortified New Orleans' African-ness as well as its "Frenchness," slowing its Americanization and Anglicization for decades. The vast majority of what we regard in New Orleans as "French" is actually Haitian. We see this imprint on New Orleans in countless ways — in its food, architecture, art, celebrations, and tradition of seeking civil rights, but most notably, in the music.
Why The Haitian Revolution Inspired So Many Rebellions Spencer Platt/Getty Images
By Marina Manoukian/Dec. 10, 2020 2:44 pm EDT/Updated: March 1, 2021 9:36 am EDT
The Haitian Revolution not only led to Haiti's independence, but it set off a ripple effect of uprisings by enslaved people across the Caribbean and South America. Although not all of the revolts that it inspired were successful, each and every uprising chipped away at the sovereignty of colonial empires.
The Haitian Revolution was in turn inspired by the French Revolution of 1789, which set the standard for the ideals of liberty and freedom that nations had the right to aspire towards. Since the colonies were built on a "foundation of bondage, inequality, and prejudice," the hypocrisy of the French was promptly challenged. While earlier rebellions merely sought to withdraw from colonial society, the Haitian Revolution sought to completely overthrow the system.