The Haitian revolution

The revolution''s effects on the institution of slavery were felt throughout the Americas. The end of French rule and the abolition of slavery in the former colony was followed by a successful defense of the freedoms the former slaves won and with the collaboration of already free people of color their independence from white Europeans. The revolution represented the largest slave uprising since Spartacus'' unsuccessful revolt against the Roman Republic nearly 1900 years earlier and challenged long-held European beliefs about alleged black inferiority and about slaves'' ability to achieve and maintain their own freedom. The rebels'' organizational capacity and tenacity under pressure inspired stories those shocked and frightened slave owners in the hemisphere At the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 the colony of St. Domingue now Haiti furnished two-thirds of France''s overseas trade employed one thousand ships and fifteen thousand French sailors. The colony became France''s richest the envy of every other European nation.