State · 1791–1804
The Haitian Revolution
Gonaïves, Haiti (where independence was declared)
On 21 August 1791 enslaved Africans rose in revolt in Saint-Domingue, France's most profitable colony, which in 1789 produced 60 percent of the world's coffee. Through 13 years of war and shifting alliances, including British and Spanish interventions and a large French expedition sent by Napoleon in 1802, the rebels prevailed; their foremost general, the formerly enslaved Toussaint Louverture, died in a French prison in 1803, and Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who led the final campaign, declared Haiti independent at Gonaïves on 1 January 1804.
Why it mattered
Haiti became the first independent nation in Latin America and the first post-colonial state founded and ruled by formerly enslaved people, and its revolution's effects on slavery were felt throughout the Americas.
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