The struggle that culminated in Haitian independence was never as simple as “black versus white.” White colonists, black slaves, and free men and women of color all had their own agendas and ambitions. Likewise, the struggle was never a purely local affair. Throughout its course, the conflict in Saint-Domingue was shaped by developments in Europe. The politics of the French Revolution, the place of Saint-Domingue in the French imperial economy, and France’s shifting fortunes during the Napoleonic Wars all directly influenced events in Saint-Domingue. Moreover, the same racial dynamics and economic systems that produced a revolution in Saint-Domingue produced uprisings and revolts elsewhere in the French Caribbean.

We see this complexity reflected in the life of Toussaint L’Ouverture himself. He was an emancipated black man who clashed with the island’s free men of color; sided first with the Spanish, and then with the French; led a successful slave rebellion; and then invited white planters to reclaim their property. Complex racial dynamics shaped the impact of the French Revolution on the French Caribbean from the beginning. As word began to reach France’s Caribbean colonies of the dramatic events taking place in France in 1788 and 1789, inhabitants pondered their implications. How would the principles embodied in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen be applied in the slave societies of the French Caribbean? How would the rise of republican government affect France’s political relationship with its colonies? The following documents allow us to explore the initial reaction of slaves and free men of color to the French Revolution. As you read them, consider how each author defined the principles of the Revolution and applied them to his own social group. What strategies did these authors use to convince French lawmakers to support their claim to “the Rights of Man”?