America · Part 2

Church lost it supremacy and it became subordinate to the state. Freedom of faith and religious tolerance had come to stay. The Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizens brought to light the importance of personal and collective rights. The three organs of the government, namely, the legislative, executive and The Age of Revolutions owned slaves. But Haiti’s European population disregarded law. Within two months isolated fighting broke out between European whites and mulattoes. All of them expected the black slaves to continue working, suffering and dying as if nothing had changed. But they took them by surprise when in August thousands of slaves rose in rebellion. The European whites attempted to appease the mulattoes to quell the slave revolt. The French National Assembly granted citizenship to all mulattoes in April . The country was torn by rival factions, some of which were playing into the hands of Spanish colonists in Santo Domingo or of British troops from Jamaica. In , a commissioner, Léger- Félicité Sonthonax, was sent from France to maintain order. He offered freedom to slaves who joined his army. He soon abolished slavery altogether, a decision ratified subsequently by the French government. In the late 1790s, Toussaint L’Ouverture, a military leader and former slave, gained control of several areas. Napoleon sent a fleet of , troops to seize control of Saint-Domingue from Toussaint L’Ouverture’s forces. The war which followed was prolonged and bloody. At one point the French army seemed to have won after Toussaint was misled into believing in the possibility of conciliating with the enemy. But he was kidnapped and killed. His former lieutenant Dessalines rose to the occasion and organised black resistance. He defeated Napoleon’s army. Saint Domingue became the independent black state of Haiti in . COLOMBIA VENEZUELA GUYANA GUYANA BRAZIL BOLIVIA PARAGUAY URUGUAY ARGENTINA CHILE PERU ECUADOR SURINAME ATLANTIC OCEAN PACIFIC OCEAN ATLANTIC OCEAN FRENCH LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES E W N S Not to Scale MEXICO CENTRAL AMERICA The Haitian Revolution Haiti, earlier known as Saint-Domingue (as the French called their