Indian indentureship vs. African Slavery - 1445 Words

Hannah Henry Tshana Thomas-Francique West Indian History 18 March 2014 Haitian Revolution: Circumstances Haiti was the French of Santo Domingo, the most prolific colonial economy in the world. Monopolized by plantation agriculture, mainly to stock coffee and sugar to the world market, practically 90 percent was Haiti’s slave population. African slaves were brought to the island in the Atlantic slave trade. The fragment of the populace subsisted of peoples of European ancestry and of mixed heritage, delineated in the law of the colony as â€Å"white† or people of color, proportionately. Both of these groups owned slaves. French bureaucrats subjugated the island. By 1788, the native Indian populace had died out completely as result of†¦show more content†¦He also overtook the heads of the free coloreds and rival black commanders. Toussaint oversaw undisclosed consultations with the British that led to their disengagement from Santo Domingo in 1798; he also had contacts with the United States government, which was then entangled in an implicit war with France and wa s elated to sabotage French jurisdiction over their colonies. Historians contradict about what Toussaint was intending during these years. Some think he already predetermined to establish an autonomous country; others consider he was hoping for an agreement in which Santo Domingo would stay a French colony, but with a government of its own, selected by all its citizens, despite race. Toussaint was mindful that, as subversive earnestness in France was fading, some legislators were calling for the rehabilitation of slavery in the colonies; he had no motive of letting making that come to past. But he needed French support against the British, and so he played a perplexed game and kept his real aims vague. Toussaint did hope to rehabilitate Santo Domingo’s economy. Although he guaranteed the black populace that there would be no return to slavery, he reiterated that most former slaves had to go back to their plantations and continue field work. They would now be paid and have more free time, but they were still not free to leave or to become