in the late 18th century one of the greatest revolutions in human history took place the people of this revolution would rise up against inequality demand freedom and justice and ultimately win their independence my guess is you're thinking of the American Revolution the spirit of 76 but you would be wrong the revolution I'm talking about took place off the southern coast of the United States in a small French colony called sand among which would later be known by a new name Haiti so why would America a young scrappy and hungry country that fought for the ideas of life liberty the pursuit of happiness and that all men were created equal turn its nose up at the Haitian Revolution rather than embracing their fellow freedom fighters because the Haitian Revolution was led and worn by black slaves I am NOT a historian but neither are you so how about we the people learn this stuff together welcome to us [Music] over the past week guys I have been fully immersed in the Haitian Revolution studying the French Revolution from my my European history course and the reason I was so immersed in the Haitian Revolution is because of this book right here it's called the vengers of the new world the story of the Haitian Revolution it's written by Laurent du Bois if you guys are looking for a scholarly work that reads like a screenplay this is the one that you want to read and because I've been so immersed in the Haitian Revolution and because of the fact that I have been giving you guys an episode in about two weeks now I figured why not tie the United States to the Haitian Revolution and see where America stood during this particular time so let's jump into it now too quickly to quickly give you some background on the Haitian Revolution you should know that the island originally was run by Spain at the time and it was called Santo Domingo but later on in the colonies history in 1697 to be more specific France after having fought Spain in a war took control of the colony and renamed it sand among and not only did they have control of the island control of that colony but that colony was making friends a ton of money because crops like tobacco sugar and coffee were all being exported off the island at an incredibly rapid rate and it was all profit because all of the work was done by slave labor and as long as those crops kept making money then more and more Africans had to be imported to send among to keep up with demand and it got to the point that the population of the island was made up mostly of these Africans that were being imported to the island as well as a group of people known as Creoles that were born on the island from African parents and then you also had free people of color on the island as well and then there was the minority of the population which was mostly European whites that were running these plantations that the slaves were working on but then in 1789 following the American Revolution France kicked off its very own revolution and like America's Declaration of Independence France released its own declaration called the Declaration of the Rights of Man and citizen and Frances declaration from the very beginning stated that quote men are born and remained free and equal in rights end quote which was a fantastic the declaration to make if you were white and even though in France is General Assembly there were those that were advocating for the emancipation of slaves and then later on in their timeline slavery would be completely abolished at the time when the declaration first came out it wasn't really an issue that the majority of the French were looking to discuss not only that but when news of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and citizen made its way from France all the way to send among the white population owners weren't having it and at one point diplomats from sand among were sent to France to advocate for emancipation for slaves in the General Assembly but to no avail unfortunately and so finally in 1791 the African population on the island of sand among that had been kidnapped from their original continent packed tightly into these slave ships some of them didn't even make the trip and those that did might have been covered in blood or feces or sweat or even the bodies of those that had perished on the ship those slaves in 1791 rallied together stood up and in one voice basically cried out I'm tired of this and it was on they organized and violently stood up to anyone that would try to oppress them and among them one a former slave stood out and would become the leader of this movement and his name was Toussaint L'Ouverture and over the course of the 1790s I'm telling you Luba tours army could not be beat they beat back French troops they also beat back British and Spanish troops had tried to take over and try to suppress them because of the time Britain Spain and friends were all at war with each other sand among would not be anyone's prize it belonged to Lovato and his people and at one point when looma tour had taken control of most of the island napoleon bonaparte himself got involved napoleon himself sent french troops to send among to try to stop this slave rebellion from continuing any further and it was during these battles that Toussaint would be captured put on a ship taken to France and he would die in prison but even though Toussaint was gone the slaves continued to fight Napoleon's troops slaves and free people of color joined together to continue fighting and by 1803 Napoleon's troops were dying off in great numbers because of being just soundly beaten by this army and at the same time they're also dying due to disease that they weren't used to when they would make it to sand among the the residents of the island were used to the tropical heat and so on and so forth but the French never been exposed to that type of climate before we're not used to it so they were dying off in great numbers from that too so eventually they would leave the island and with the French gone and the other armies that had tried to take over were soundly beaten on January 1 1804 the residents of sand among declared their independence and renamed their island Haiti it was the second country in the Americas in the American region to declare itself independent after the United States and I believe to this day the only nation that was birthed out of a slave uprising so how did the United States look at this revolution this this revolution that was happening off of a southern coast let's say there was a bit complex because first off the idea that slaves beat back troops and armies from Britain Spain and France scared this out of southern statesmen because in their minds they thought well if these slaves could rise up they could overtake their masters and they could beat these armies from these prominent European nations what's to stop the slaves and our country from doing the same thing we can't have that here so while slave owners were wrestling with this idea at the same time the United States was still involved in trade with sand among ships from the north were sailing down to son to mom to pick up the crops like coffee and sugar and tobacco and in return they were engaging in trade with sand among while John Adams was President of the United States and furthermore Adams not being a slave owner and someone that was against the idea of slavery was actually providing aid to live a tourist forces but Adams wasn't the only founding father that would be in contact with live iturra Alexander Hamilton even sent a letter to Toussaint trying to exert a little bit of influence on his own if you remember in the Constitutional Convention Alexander Hamilton pitched the idea that the United States should have had a president for life they should have had a lifelong executive obviously that idea didn't fly in the United States so instead he rode to Tucson said hey you should you should have lifelong executive down where you're at you should have one guy running the place for all time because the idea didn't grab onto here so he thought well maybe these guys will maybe maybe they'll like my idea but in 1801 Thomas Jefferson was elected president that's when pretty much all connection with what would become Haiti was severed completely because yes Jefferson was a fan of the French Revolution he helped the Marquis de Lafayette draft declaration during the French Revolution while he was in France but at the same time well he was a fan of the idea of these slaves declaring independence on their own Island he didn't really want that influence to bleed over into the United States because remember Jefferson was still a slave owner not to mention that southern statesmen exerted a lot of influence in the American Congress during Thomas Jefferson's presidency so TJ were to try to reach out to send among and give them aid give literatures Army aid probably upset the southern congressmen they would be up in arms and they might consider seceding from the new Union so Jefferson did what he believed he could do to try to save face he cut off all the aid that the island was receiving from the Adams administration and on top of that when Haiti declared independence in 1804 Jefferson refused to recognize their independent status and the United States would not recognize Haiti as an independent nation until 1862 in the middle of the Civil War after the South seceded from the Union but what's funny though is that an argument could be made that if it were not for the Haitian Revolution the United States might not have doubled the size of its territory via the Louisiana Purchase you can see since Napoleon's troops were beaten in sand among he could no longer use via the Louisiana territory as a place to grow food and supply food for what would in his mind be the reinvigorated plantation system in send among because Napoleon was going to beat these troops and then bring back slavery to the island so since Napoleon no longer had any use for that land why not sell it to the United States walk away with fifteen million dollars in the United States gets to uh gets to expand gets a expand its nation again I'm not saying that was the Haitian Revolution was impetus for why the Louisiana Purchase happened but you could make an argument that it was definitely a part of the decision now my friends is it for this episode of US 101 I know it's not typical of what we discuss on US 101 but again I'd been reading about the Haitian Revolution it was an incredible story and I wanted to tie it back to American history in in some way so hopefully now you have an idea of the Haitian Revolution you'll go read about it yourself and maybe you'll do some research about America's ties out of the Haitian Revolution thank you guys so much for watching hopefully for those of you that are back in school your school year is off to a fantastic start and thanks to all of you that have been subscribing to the channel liking the videos sharing them leaving comments in the comment section guys I know did the the episodes haven't been coming as frequently but again I'm in grad school too so I'm doing homework and readings and stuff but I wanted to make this episode because I want to see your faces again I miss y'all how you been how's your mom you can follow us 101 on Facebook Instagram Twitter and snapchat all those links down below in in the description box guys I will see you on the next episode of u.s. 101 hopefully next week or maybe the week after I just follow on social media you'll know when the next episodes coming I am all done and use this episode to kind of think about how the United States was viewed by the rest of the world during the Revolutionary era it's kind of an interesting idea to think about and it kind of puts the rest of the world in perspective as to where the United States was at its beginning so yeah think about that do your homework I'll see you guys soon I love you all [Music] you 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