Spotlight Exhibit Series

Revolutionary France and Haiti, 1787–1804
February 10 – March 13, 2006

Prior to the revolution, individuals living in France were afforded rights and privileges based a legal, three-tiered class system that also took into consideration race and religion and was determined largely through heredity. In the mid- to late 1800s, writers, philosophers, and clerics worldwide began to debate the purpose and desirability of such a society. By 1788, regional revolts and the growth of activist groups led King Louis XVI to call for a 1789 meeting of the Estates-General, a representative body comprised of members from each class — clergy, nobility, and everybody else (the Third Estate). The clergy and nobility outnumbered and traditionally voted against the latter; however, Louis XVI eventually agreed to an enlargement of the Third Estate. In June, after taking the famous "Tennis Court Oath" the Third Party declared itself the National Assembly, and joined by a few liberal nobles and many clergy, rejected a request from Louis XVI that the remaining members of the Estates-General retain their representative powers.

The storming of the Bastille in Paris, and the following “Reign of Terror,” in which the guillotine was liberally employed, remain as potent symbols of French rebellion in the public mind today. Yet these symbols not only circulated in France, but gained currency in the New World as well. The revolution in Haiti in may be as powerful a reminder of local organization against unjust political practices as the French Revolution ever was. Taking cues from the thinkers behind the French constitution and the Third Estate’s ultimate rise to power, the Haitian revolution epitomizes the popular demand for basic human rights like liberty and equality.

Residents of the French colony of Saint Domingue (modern day Haiti) responded quickly to the revolution in France. Abolition of slavery became a large topic of debate within the new government and among the public. Expectations of full and equal citizenship rose among the free blacks and mulattos and slaves in the colony. Many planters, slaveholders, and shippers feared a loss of great commercial wealth that would result from the abolition of slavery. Some members of the National Assembly attempted unsuccessfully to exempt the colonies from the new constitution; however, new decrees also failed to grant political rights to free blacks or abolish slavery.

In August 1791, the slaves of Saint Domingue rose up in rebellion. In response, the National Assembly rescinded the rights of free blacks and mulattos granted in May of that year. In March 1792, the assembly voted to reinstate those rights but did not move to abolish slavery. That fall, the French government sent agents to Saint Domingue to suppress the continuing slave revolt. Rebel slaves then made pacts with the British and Spanish. Faced with the threat of both British and Spanish invasions and a collapsing colonial economy, the French government abolished slavery in Saint Domingue in the fall of 1793. The former slaves, under the direction of Toussaint L’Ouverture, continued their revolt and in 1804 established the independent republic of Haiti.

This Spotlight Exhibit was inspired and funded in part by "Revolution and the Making of Identities: France and Haiti, 1787-1804" a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Seminar held at the Library in 2006. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the NEH.