Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Katie Ambert and I'm Sarah. And Haiti has been
Speaker 1: on everyone's minds lately since that huge earthquake hit part
Speaker 1: of prints. Yeah, and there's been an interesting sort of
Speaker 1: moral tone to a lot of the discussions and commentary
Speaker 1: about Haiti. Katie, you actually blogged about this recently, right,
Speaker 1: I was blogging about Port Royal in Jamaica, which was
Speaker 1: the sodom of its day, and it completely sank into
Speaker 1: the ocean, and rather than being compassionate about it, a
Speaker 1: lot of people simply assumed it was divine punishment and
Speaker 1: they deserved what they got. Yeah. So there's a precedent
Speaker 1: for this kind of bizarre seeming moral judgment in relation
Speaker 1: to a natural disaster, but um, when it's tied to
Speaker 1: Haiti specifically, it seems to focus on their revolution, and
Speaker 1: that's what we're going to talk about today. Right, So
Speaker 1: to give you a little Haiti history, We've got the
Speaker 1: island of Hispaniola, which today is divided into Haiti and
Speaker 1: the Dominican republic Um that it was settled by the
Speaker 1: Spanish and the French, the Spanish first thanks to Christopher Columbus.
Speaker 1: On the Spanish side was called Santo Domingo and the
Speaker 1: French side sand A Mang and Sanda Mang made so
Speaker 1: much money for the French um money mostly came from sugar,
Speaker 1: but there's also coffee and cocoa and indigo. In the
Speaker 1: seventeen eighties, Santa Mang equals a fourth of France's trade overseas.
Speaker 1: And in the seventeen nineties there were about thirty thousand
Speaker 1: white people, twenty four thousand free people of color who
Speaker 1: are either black or of mixed race known as the
Speaker 1: Gen de couler, and four hundred and fifty thousand black slaves.
Speaker 1: So notice the disparity there in numbers. It's the minority
Speaker 1: who has the power, but they're scared of the majority,
Speaker 1: which is slaves, and they should be, as we will
Speaker 1: find out shortly. Yeah, and this free people of color group,
Speaker 1: the Gen de colur, are are an important aspect of
Speaker 1: this divide that will come eventually. They often own slaves
Speaker 1: and plantations themselves, but they're not full citizens, so they're
Speaker 1: considered somewhere in between whites and slaves as far as
Speaker 1: their social class. Goes. Possibly the most important figure in
Speaker 1: the Haitian Revolution was a man named Francois Dominique Toussain,
Speaker 1: who was born into this society around seventeen forty three
Speaker 1: as a slave on the Breda plantation. And it's fairly
Speaker 1: notable that he is actually born on the island. He's
Speaker 1: not African or you know, he was not born in Africa,
Speaker 1: and in a country where there were so many more
Speaker 1: slave deaths than births, that's pretty notable. And he was
Speaker 1: a privileged slave, as was his father. He had some
Speaker 1: education and he knew some French and some Latin, which
Speaker 1: was unusual. And later in life he was freed um
Speaker 1: and he became a Catholic and married with children. And
Speaker 1: as far as his personal attributes go, he was a vegetarian,
Speaker 1: which I thought was a little unusual. And he was
Speaker 1: also very short, much like Napoleon Bonaparte. This will come
Speaker 1: up a little bit later, and we don't know what
Speaker 1: he looked like, but he's never described as handsome. So
Speaker 1: we're going to set the stage with the French Revolution
Speaker 1: taking place, and suddenly we have liberty, gality and fraternity
Speaker 1: as a battle cry, and it is resonating all the
Speaker 1: way to France's colony. Right, the local assemblies are now
Speaker 1: allowed in the colonies like Sanda Maan, and the gender
Speaker 1: colur planned to take advantage of these new rights. They
Speaker 1: demand the full rights of citizenship. But you know, guess
Speaker 1: how France and the rich white people of Sanda Maang
Speaker 1: felt about this, I'll give you a hint. Not great.
Speaker 1: When we have lots of factions going on here too,
Speaker 1: because we have whites who have taken the battle cry
Speaker 1: of the revolution to heart as well, and they're thinking
Speaker 1: it's the perfect time to um have their own revolution
Speaker 1: and independent. Yeah, become independent of France because you know,
Speaker 1: obviously if France is not in control, maybe they could
Speaker 1: make more money. So the whites are divided between royalists
Speaker 1: and republicans. So there's so much going on here, and
Speaker 1: so that brings us to a rebellion. There's a small
Speaker 1: rebellion in seventeen ninety led by the Saint O Jay
Speaker 1: who's a freeman of color, and it's stomped out and
Speaker 1: he's executed. But that is not the end. That is
Speaker 1: just the beginning, especially because around one hundred thousand new
Speaker 1: slaves arrived in Sentiment between seventeen, eighty eight and seventeen,
Speaker 1: so our numbers are even higher. Yeah, so this is
Speaker 1: the slave's major entry into into the picture. And we'd
Speaker 1: like to add that in this area of the world
Speaker 1: was pretty much the worst place to be a slave.
Speaker 1: Treatment here was notoriously cruel and the climate is horrible.
Speaker 1: Of the most of the French white people moved to
Speaker 1: the island and try to get get back to France
Speaker 1: as quickly as they can so and escape yellow favorite.
Speaker 1: The climate is not hospitable to um, you know, new arrivals.
Speaker 1: So up until this point it's mainly been skirmishes between
Speaker 1: the free people of color and the white people on
Speaker 1: the island. But this is when the slaves get into it,
Speaker 1: and there will be blood, as I wrote in my outline,
Speaker 1: and also vengeance. In August, under the leadership of a
Speaker 1: guy named Duddy Buckman, who was a voodoo priest, the
Speaker 1: slaves rose up and killed thousands and thousands of people
Speaker 1: and burned the plantations as they went. There were mutilations
Speaker 1: and other atrocities. At the time. This wasn't just about independence,
Speaker 1: this was about getting back and just kind of a
Speaker 1: side note here, would like to add that Haitian voodoo
Speaker 1: isn't what you would think of when you think of voodoo.
Speaker 1: It's not the little trinkets you can buy in New Orleans.
Speaker 1: It's a combination of West African and Catholic beliefs. So
Speaker 1: it's a lot more complex than the little voodoo job.
Speaker 1: So keep that in mind, please when you're learning about
Speaker 1: Haitian voodoo. So the revolution is on at this point,
Speaker 1: and when the revolution breaks out, our guy to Stint
Speaker 1: is not involved. He's not killing anyone, he's not burning anything.
Speaker 1: He even helps his master escape and he supports the
Speaker 1: Royalist until they decide to ask the British to help them,
Speaker 1: and then he's pretty much done with that, right, he's
Speaker 1: done being the good slave quote unquote, and he joins
Speaker 1: the fight, and surprise, surprise, he's really good at being
Speaker 1: a leader, and he's absolutely brilliant. Yeah, he's The rebel
Speaker 1: leaders aren't haven't been the best up to this point,
Speaker 1: but Toussaint is um an amazing, amazing leader of the forces. Right,
Speaker 1: it was a very ill organized movement before that. So
Speaker 1: he organizes everyone, gets his own kind of people together,
Speaker 1: and then teaches them all guerilla warfare and they know
Speaker 1: that island better than anyone else, so it's going to
Speaker 1: be a hard hit for the French. He also takes
Speaker 1: over when um when Bokeman dies Yeah, along with Jean
Speaker 1: Jacques Dessaline. So under Toussain and de Selene's leadership, the
Speaker 1: slaves gain control of a large part of the island
Speaker 1: and around sevente to Sand takes on the last name
Speaker 1: Louverture and he becomes known as to Santa Luverchure. For
Speaker 1: the rest of us, it means the Opening and it's
Speaker 1: still just the people on the island versus France. At
Speaker 1: this point, Frances definitely losing and they give rights to
Speaker 1: free men of color just because they have to. They're
Speaker 1: losing this Thiss fight. But they also send in their
Speaker 1: own fighters because they don't want to lose this incredibly
Speaker 1: wealthy colony that they have. But it gets a little
Speaker 1: bit more calm, like hated because around seventeen ninety three
Speaker 1: Frances at war with both Spain and Great Britain, so
Speaker 1: Europe is going to get involved in this home yes,
Speaker 1: and the French want to regain control of their island,
Speaker 1: but the Brits on the Spanish see an opportunity this
Speaker 1: is their chance to take over and get a piece
Speaker 1: of the pie. Spain would love to have the rest
Speaker 1: of the island, and the slave owners on the island
Speaker 1: also see an opportunity to ally themselves with Great Britain,
Speaker 1: which supports slavery, and of course the slave owners are
Speaker 1: trying to return things to the status quo, the way
Speaker 1: of life that was making them so much money before.
Speaker 1: So Tussa and the others are fighting with Spain. At
Speaker 1: this point France is completely outnumbered, and in seventeen ninety
Speaker 1: four they abolish slavery in the colonies, so a huge
Speaker 1: win for Tussa and his group. But something else surprising happens.
Speaker 1: In seventeen ninety four. Louiviture joins up with his old
Speaker 1: enemy France because the National Convention has declared emancipation in
Speaker 1: the colonies and Great Britain and Spain have not. So
Speaker 1: he's seeing an ally now and his former enemy right,
Speaker 1: because that is his goal to abolish slavery period. So
Speaker 1: if you're going to go along with that, then he's
Speaker 1: going to go along with you. And his switching sides
Speaker 1: does not go well for Great Britain in Spain because
Speaker 1: of course he's fought with them. He knows who's leading them,
Speaker 1: he knows what kind of strategies and tactics they'll do.
Speaker 1: And also he's really good. He's good at playing them
Speaker 1: all off against each other too, France, Spain and Great Britain.
Speaker 1: And it's interesting to think of um, of all these
Speaker 1: world powerhouses, meeting with the rebellion leader, right, And it's
Speaker 1: cool to me too. He was a thing around fifty
Speaker 1: when the revolution started, and all he'd really done his
Speaker 1: life was the slave and this was his moment to shine.
Speaker 1: But well, Louverture is messing with the great European powers.
Speaker 1: They're also messing with him, and France sets him up
Speaker 1: as lieutenant governor, and they're trying to set up other
Speaker 1: leaders to rebel against him. So everybody has multiple games
Speaker 1: going on at once, right. But as far as public
Speaker 1: opinion at the time goes, the people on the island,
Speaker 1: the slaves of course love him, but surprisingly also the
Speaker 1: Europeans and the gen de coler on the island like
Speaker 1: him too because they like what he's doing for the economy.
Speaker 1: He's letting the planters come back out of exile, which
Speaker 1: we were saying for the French Revolution that was not
Speaker 1: something that happened. You were a French aristocrat, you were
Speaker 1: living in London. You were gone and you better stay gone.
Speaker 1: But he let them come back and even forced the
Speaker 1: freed slaves to work the plantations because he needed that
Speaker 1: so he could trade, so he could get money, so
Speaker 1: he could fight. Yeah, I like Katie called this militant
Speaker 1: agriculture when she was talking about it with me earlier,
Speaker 1: and that that really helped it make sense. Just it's
Speaker 1: not quite slavery, but you're still being forced to work
Speaker 1: on a plantation. So he made them work, but he
Speaker 1: wouldn't let them be whipped. He limited their hours, and
Speaker 1: he gave them I believe a share of the produce
Speaker 1: as well. But still clearly they didn't want to go
Speaker 1: back to their old lives and he made them do it.
Speaker 1: So in the meantime, as far as the battle goes,
Speaker 1: UM he's still trampling the Brits and they start to
Speaker 1: negotiate with him secretly. Um. They actually withdraw in sevente
Speaker 1: and part of this secret agreement is a trade agreement.
Speaker 1: Um Sentamank starts up trade again with Great Britain and
Speaker 1: the United States. They get arms in return for sugar,
Speaker 1: and Toussaint also makes a deal that he won't invade
Speaker 1: Jamaica or the American Solf and the Brits say, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, we could make you king of an independent Haiti.
Speaker 1: But he doesn't trust them, and he still hates the
Speaker 1: fact that they have not abolished slavery for themselves, so
Speaker 1: he says no. But he does declare himself when are
Speaker 1: general for life of sentiming and basically sets up a
Speaker 1: military dictatorship with a new constitution. And some of this
Speaker 1: I think I've read somewhere and maybe in Smithsonian, that
Speaker 1: he'd had advice from Alexander Hamilton's about doing this very thing,
Speaker 1: which we thought was a pretty cool side note. But
Speaker 1: he sets up courts, he tries to set up a
Speaker 1: tax system, and more importantly to him, in part his
Speaker 1: ideas of equality and tolerance along with his ideal of
Speaker 1: hard work. He thought people were basically lazy list you
Speaker 1: had to coerce them into working. Yeah, but he has
Speaker 1: trouble in ministering a government. He's a great leader, but
Speaker 1: he's a wartime leader, and it's a different kind of job.
Speaker 1: And a lot of people have died in the revolution too.
Speaker 1: It's been at war. Europe has always been plotting against him,
Speaker 1: so there's a their wounds basically, and there's still racial
Speaker 1: tension too, because um the white people and the mixed
Speaker 1: race people think some of them are hoping that France
Speaker 1: will come back in and again bring things back to
Speaker 1: the old ways. And of course, as we've mentioned, the
Speaker 1: ex slaves don't want to be working these plantations that
Speaker 1: they're being forced to work, and there are some black
Speaker 1: people on the island who want to get rid of
Speaker 1: all the planters and split up the plantations among themselves.
Speaker 1: To Sant's nephew is one of these, and he leads
Speaker 1: a revolt, but to San had him executed. We can't
Speaker 1: forget about the other side of the island though, Santa Domingo.
Speaker 1: It's the same island, but they have slaves on that side,
Speaker 1: so that's got to be driving to some kind of
Speaker 1: crazy having a these slaves right on the other side.
Speaker 1: It did, in fact, to drive some completely crazy, and
Speaker 1: in eighteen o one he takes over that side of
Speaker 1: the island as well, even though one Napoleon Bonaparte tells
Speaker 1: him specifically not to Lubature free the slaves, and Lupature
Speaker 1: is told Napoleon he's a Frenchman, he doesn't need to worry.
Speaker 1: But he's clearly going way against Napoleon's conte. He writes
Speaker 1: to him, talking about his loyalty and all good he's
Speaker 1: done for the island. But this power relationship, where you
Speaker 1: know you have Napoleon ostensibly in control um saintaming is
Speaker 1: still part of France, is really skewed if you have
Speaker 1: Tussaw going and invading another part of the island completely,
Speaker 1: and especially if you're thinking about their motives which are
Speaker 1: completely at odds with one another. Napoleon wants to get
Speaker 1: France's colony completely back under control, and he's also right,
Speaker 1: he's seriously a racist, and Toussant knows this, and he
Speaker 1: knows that Napoleon would just bring slavery back if he
Speaker 1: only had just an inch, you know, to get his
Speaker 1: foot in the door, that it's going to happen too.
Speaker 1: Sat on the other hand, wants to go to Africa
Speaker 1: and free all the slaves of the world. So we're
Speaker 1: talking about two people who have pretty much nothing in common. Well,
Speaker 1: so Napoleon sends General Victor le Cleric to the island
Speaker 1: along with several thousand soldiers. We've seen numbers about twenty
Speaker 1: thousand to forty thousand, so a bit of a discrepancy there,
Speaker 1: but it's way more than Toussaint is expecting. And the
Speaker 1: white people of the island and the free people of
Speaker 1: color side with the clerk Um, whereas the blacks of
Speaker 1: the island fight against him, but eventually many end up
Speaker 1: on the Clerk's side because there's not much of a choice.
Speaker 1: After a while they've been fighting, and to Sa finally
Speaker 1: surrendered on the condition that the clerk not brings slavery
Speaker 1: back to the island, So to Sun retires to his
Speaker 1: own plantation, but the French think that he's probably still
Speaker 1: scheming to take control, which is like they were, to
Speaker 1: be fair, he might have been, and they trick him
Speaker 1: into coming to a meeting where they arrest him and
Speaker 1: send him to France, and he's taken to Joux in
Speaker 1: the mountains and kept in a cold, damp castle, and
Speaker 1: the French are basically just waiting for him to die
Speaker 1: in this castle, and he does on April seven, eighteen
Speaker 1: and three, And we don't know what happened to his family,
Speaker 1: whether um they stayed on the island or went to France.
Speaker 1: Some accounts have some of them going on the boat
Speaker 1: with him, and then there's no record of them after
Speaker 1: they get to France, so I'm assuming their fate couldn't
Speaker 1: have been wonderful. But after he dies, the fighting and
Speaker 1: Sanda Mang went on, and on January one, o four,
Speaker 1: Sanda Mang became the independent nation of Haiti. And if
Speaker 1: you'd like to read a little bit more about the
Speaker 1: revolution than we've talked about in this podcast, I did
Speaker 1: a blog on it not too long ago, as we mentioned,
Speaker 1: So go to blogs dot how staff works dot com
Speaker 1: and look for stuff he missed in history class. It
Speaker 1: generated loss of discussion, it did controversial discussion, and we're
Speaker 1: going to end in a little bit of a lighter
Speaker 1: note and to go to listener mails. Today's emails are
Speaker 1: both about our podcast on St. Paul's Cathedral during the Blitz,
Speaker 1: and our first one is from Katie, who recently moved
Speaker 1: to New York City, and she thanked us for helping
Speaker 1: her past a test in English, which made me really happy.
Speaker 1: That's my favorite subject. Um. They read the short story
Speaker 1: The Destructors by Graham Green, and she ended up being
Speaker 1: able to talk about symbolism and St. Paul's in her essay,
Speaker 1: So Katie and glad we were able to help. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we also got another email from Lattice Love and Ontario
Speaker 1: and um, when we talked about St. Paul's, we mentioned
Speaker 1: how a few of the biggest bombs that struck nearby
Speaker 1: or even struck the cathedral didn't explode and how lucky
Speaker 1: that was for not only St. Paul's and the St.
Speaker 1: Paul's Watch, but the whole neighborhood, and a lot of
Speaker 1: slapt pointed out that those bombs failing to detonate was
Speaker 1: not an accident. Check. Female laborers who were forced to
Speaker 1: work in arms factories by the occupying Nazis would sometimes
Speaker 1: sabotage the bombs by leaving out the crucial metal ring
Speaker 1: that could help the bomb explode when it hit the ground.
Speaker 1: And um, it's sort of a sad story, but because
Speaker 1: the Nazis were so careful to check for any of
Speaker 1: these rings being snuck out in pockets or aprons, the
Speaker 1: laborers would often have to ingest them, which would tear
Speaker 1: up their intestines when they were being passed through. But still,
Speaker 1: what a courageous other side of this story and a
Speaker 1: really cool fact. So thanks to a lot Us lab
Speaker 1: for that one. And if you'd like to email us,
Speaker 1: It's History podcast and how stuff works dot com and
Speaker 1: we also started a Twitter if you would like to
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Speaker 1: our home page at www dot how stuff works dot com.
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