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.

♪ (music) ♪

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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
ntimidated 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 had 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 1st, 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 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

doubled 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 slave holding 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, Vodou 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 Voudou played in the revolt,

the practice of Vodou
was banned throughout the South.

Along with Voudou,
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

the slave revolt
would spread to the United States.

Of the major slave conspiracies in the US,

Gabriel Prosser, 1800;

Charles Deslondes, in 1811;

Denmark Vesey, in 1822;

and Nat Turner, in 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 2nd, 1807.

The tales of slaughter Haitian refugees
brought to the United States

made 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 1st, 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.

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.

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 slave holding
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