The Haitian Revolution, The Slave Trade, and Black Women

Thank you for watching African Elements.

In this episode, we look
at the impact of the Haitian Revolution.

The Republic of Haiti
shaped US politics around slavery,

heightened tension
between North and South,

and impacted Black women
in often overlooked ways.

We’ll explore those impacts, coming up.

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For this video,
we look at the various ways

that the Haitian Revolution impacted
the Black experience in the United states.

Less than 5 years after the United States
Constitution was ratified and the US

became the first independent republic
in the Western hemisphere,

the republic of Haiti soon followed

by becoming
the second independent republic.

As a result of a successful
slave uprising,

the Haitian Revolution
played a critical role

in shaping the US in its formative years
through the Civil War.

In France's wealthiest colony,
only a few hundred miles from US shores,

Black slaves in Saint-Domingue

produced 60% of the western world's coffee
by the 1780s

and 40% of the sugar
imported by France and Britain.

The journal of one plantation manager
in Saint-Domingue

told of the murderous
conditions under which slaves toiled

and the desperate measures they
undertook to escape those conditions.

March 6, 1768.

We are left with a Creole
Negress named Zabeth,

whom I am despairing of.…

From her earliest infancy
she has been a thief and a maroon.

These qualities have only become
more prominent with age.

Seeing that she was about to die

because she had been chained for so long,

I had the chain removed
without her having requested it.

The same evening, at eight o’clock,

she stole the belongings
of another Negress.

[She was] captured in the act.

I held myself to threatening her that
if she once again attempted flight,

I would have her chained
for the remainder of her days.

She did not hesitate
to make all the right promises,

and in the same breath
was off to the Lemaire residence,

[the neighboring plantation].

Two days later, I sent along to her

some material and a change of clothing.

But as soon as she received these
provisions, she was off again.

Caught once more, she was sent
to the mill and chained.

About a month ago, before daybreak,
she saw that the mules were tired and

[in order to wound herself slightly]
she slipped her hand between the rollers.

She was stopped on the spot. She
had three broken fingers, and

humanity demanded that she be placed
in the hospital, without, however,

removing the large chain…

April 11, 1768 … Seeing that she was about
to die in chains, …I had the chain

removed, after having had her own
grave dug before her eyes, with her

even removing a few shovelfuls of dirt.

Despite this spectacle, which should have

intimidated her for good, she fled once
again. Seeing that she is near death,

I have had her chained in a mill, a better
place for her to die than a hospital.

Perhaps the example will have
some effect, for I see that the gentle

treatment accorded her has inspired two
other slaves to become maroons.

According to this account, within the span
of about a month, Zabeth had attempted to

escape no less than three times under
clear threat of death and had also taken

to self-injury.

On August 22, 1791, the slaves of
Saint-Domingue staged a revolt

under the leadership of Toussaint
L’Overture.

Due to widespread absentee landlordism,

slaves outnumbered whites by about
10 to 1.

By January 1, 1804, the former colony's
independence was officially declared,

and the territory was renamed after
its indigenous Arawak name, "Haiti."

The impact of the Haitian Revolution was
far reaching.

The most immediate impact was the
Louisiana Purchase on April 11, 1803.

With the impending loss of France’s
wealthiest colony, Napoleon had no

further in need for its large holdings
on the American mainland.

In a fit of disgust, he reportedly
exclaimed, "Damn sugar, damn coffee,

damn colonies ... I renounce Louisiana
forever!"

It was at that moment that then
President Thomas Jefferson sent

emissaries to France seeking only to

obtain New Orleans, and navigation
rights on the Mississippi.

To their shock, France had agreed

to hand over the whole territory of
Louisiana for a mere $15 million.

All at once, the Louisiana Purchase double
the size of the United States,

and opened up a dilemma.

Would this vast new territory be opened
up to slaveholding or non-slave holding

interests?

The Constitution passive aggressively
side stepped the issue of slavery-vaguely

referencing it, but making no specific
mention of the institution (in fact, the

word “slavery” appears nowhere in the
Constitution).

Absent any clear constitutional remedy on

what was to become of any new territories
added to the United States,

the Haitian Revolution and the Louisiana
Purchase set in motion a chain of

compromises that ultimately paved
the way to the Civil War.

The question posed by the Louisiana
territory was resolved,

when Missouri applied for statehood
in 1820.

To maintain the balance between the

free and slaveholding states' interests,
Missouri was admitted as a slave state

while the southern boundary of Missouri
was extended in the Louisiana territory

to mark the boundary between slave
holding a non-slave holding regions.

To provide balance in the senate, the
northern section of Massachusetts was

severed creating the new non-slaveholding
state of Maine in order to offset

Missouri.

So, while the constitutional crisis was
temporarily averted the Missouri

Compromise, was an indirect consequence
of the Haitian Revolution which also

indirectly led to the westward expansion
of slavery on the frontier, and ultimately

on a path to civil war. The Haitian
Revolution sent shockwaves throughout

the Western Hemisphere. Many of those
fleeing the conflict came to US shores

with tales of carnage and bloodbath. Many
in the United States – particularly those

in the South – were understandably fearful
of a slave revolt taking place only a few

hundred miles from US shores, especially
since there were already places in the

South where slaves outnumbered whites.

This fear-based reaction prompted
Southerners to enact harsher slave codes.

As we’ve seen, the cultural adaptations
Africans undertook for survival in the

Western Hemisphere largely laid the
groundwork for revolt.

Africans of the Middle Passage represented
a wide variety of ethnic groups.

In Haiti, Voodoo blended the various
practices of West African religion in a

way that dissolved their ethnic
differences and served as the ideological

glue that unified the various groups and
held the revolution together.

Recognizing the threat and the role that
Voodoo played in the revolt, the practice

of Voodouo was banned throughout the
South.

Along with Voodoo, drumming was also
outlawed, and laws were enacted

that forbade Blacks from congregating
in groups of three or more,

their movement was restricted -- allowing
slaves to travel only with written

permission from the slave owner, and
travel at night was restricted.

Southerners had good reason to fear that
the slave revolt would spread to the

United States.

Of the major slave conspiracies in the US
-- Gabriel Prosser (1800); Charles

Deslondes (1811); Denmark Vesey (1822);
and Nat Turner (1831) -- all in some way

invoked the Haitian Revolution.
As many of the slaves entering the United

States came by way of the Caribbean, it's
not difficult to understand why Congress

moved to end the international slave trade
on March 2, 1807. The tales of slaughter

Haitian refugees brought to the US make
it obvious why the import of Caribbean

slaves was no longer desirable, but
newly arrived slaves from Africa were

also known to be at higher risk of revolt.

In the wake of the Haitian Revolution,
Thomas Jefferson signed legislation

banning the international slave trade

that went into effect the moment
it was constitutionally permissible

on January 1, 1808.

Yet another indirect consequence
of the Haitian Revolution, the impact of

the ban was devastating. With Eli
Whitney's invention of the cotton gin in

1793 – a machine that quickly and
easily separated cotton fibers from their

seeds – the South became even more deeply
entrenched in slavery.

By 1860, cotton alone accounted for 58%

of all annual value of all US exports
(Hine 134).

The dramatic increase in production led
to a huge demand for slaves, and

by 1850 the slave population
ballooned to 3.2 million.

That demand combined with the closing
of the international slave trade

gave rise to one of the most horrific
aspects of slavery --

the domestic slave trade.

The domestic slave trade was the internal
traffic of slaves from within the United

States (typically the upper South) to the
plantations of the Deep South.

As author, Angela Davis, explains in her
book, Women, Race & Class, Black women

bore the brunt of the wholesale
exploitation of Black slaves

as she posits that while considered
“genderless” with regard to

slaveholders, Black women simultaneously
bore the brunt of sexual exploitation.

(Davis 2) That is to say that enslaved
Black women were

not subject to the socially defined roles
that confined women to the home,

but rather worked in the fields alongside
Black men.

Far from being considered the "weaker
sex," Black women were expected

to bear the same physical burdens and
punishments as Black men.

That Black women could still be exploited
sexually for their capacity to bear

children adds an extra layer of burden
for Black women.

Black men, for example were biologically
incapable of the experience of working

all day in a cotton field while 8 months
pregnant. Even while pregnant,

Black women were also not spared the lash
- an experience Black men were likewise

biologically incapable of having.

So, while Black men were exploited
sexually as "stallions" forced to

impregnate "breeders" for sale in the
domestic slave trade, they didn't bear

the same biological burdens that Black
women did.

The results were catastrophic. In addition
to the commodified sexual exploitation of

Black women, came the wholesale breakup
and destruction of families, as individual

members were sold off one by one to feed
the growing market in the South.

So, the westward expansion of slavery,
heightening of tensions between

slaveholding and non-slave holding
interests, the closing of the

international slave trade, and the
wholesale exploitation of Black women

are just some of the direct and indirect
impacts of the Haitian Revolution.

Thank you for watching, and now it’s time
for our comment of the week.

This one comes from “Chosen One”
who writes, “YOU’RE CLOUT CHASING

PLAIN AND SIMPLE!!!” Ironically,
this comment comes in response to

a video I did in the series titled
“Say What?!!” in which I examined

Dane Calloway’s video on the effects of
social engineering. I say ironically,

because the purpose of the video is
to point out flawed epistemology

and help folks avoid fallacious reasoning
that leads to flawed conclusions.

So, in her comment she has actually given
us yet another example of flawed reasoning

Can you spot the logical fallacy here? If
so, leave it in the comments below.

Once again, this is Darius Spearman and
you're watching African Elements.

Until next time, I’ll see you
in the comments