Jonathan Huggins

PSA #1
Prof. Wallace
30SEPTEMBER2013
Independence or Death
Liberalism; it consisted of freedom, individualism, and equality, and it was what the
slaves of Haiti wanted. From arriving from Africa on ships to eventually separating from France
and achieving their freedom, Haiti underwent vast changes in politics, economics, and popular
sovereignty. To create this civil society, the founders created the Haitian Declaration of
Independence and the Haitian Constitution (1805), which included extreme promotion of
freedom, equality and popular sovereignty. These ideas were great in context, however difficult
in ways to achieve. Through the determination of the slaves and leadership from the mastermind
behind it all, Toussaint LOuverture, Haiti was able to achieve these goals. However, even
though this achievement, Haiti still faced certain trials and tribulations in some areas.
From the video, galit for All: Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian Revolution, it is
clear where the power lies in Haiti. It is with the whites; however, it also has a direct correlation
to the shade of skin. From the lightest shade of white to the darkest shade of black, your color
determines the way in which society treats you. The way I thought of it was; If not full white, no
full rights. Mixed individuals, referred to as mulatto, had freedom, however they were still not
equal to whites. Seen in the video, they would have to do things such as stand when whites
arrived and even refer to them as sir or maam. The cultural norm in this society is the whites are
superior to anyone that is not their color.
In society, everyone wants individualism, and slavery is the furthest thing from it. Being
a slave gives an individual no opportunity to harvest a particular skill set they quite possibly may
have. The have one job and one job only, and in Haiti, as shown in the video, it is working in the
sugar cane plantations. People naturally want to better themselves and make their name known;
and slavery does not give them that opportunity. However, for one individual, opportunities
presented to him as a child allowed for him to educate himself and eventually become the leader
for this revolution. Toussaint LOuverture led the slaves of Haiti into battle, giving them the
knowledge and skills to combat the French army. The Declaration of Rights of Man and of the
Citizen was a document written in 1789 that strived for Enlightenment in the French society. It
protected the rights of white males and was closely modeled after the U.S. Declaration of
Independence. Slaves wanted equality among all races. They wanted the full rights that were
promoted in the Rights of Man.
The Haitian Declaration of Independence (1804) and The 1805 Constitution of Haiti were
documents written for the Haitian people striving for recognition of equality so that they could
have the opportunity to achieve a civil society. One thing made clear in these documents was that
the Haitian people are not going to fold easily. The tone of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the man that
wrote the document, is extremely violent. He puts his ideas out there and does so with authority.
It is clear that he does not like the French people and he says, Let them tremble when they
approach our coast, if not from the memory of those cruelties they perpetrated here, then from
the terrible resolution that we will have made to put to death anyone born French whose profane
foot soils the land of liberty.
As can be seen in both the video and the Haitian Declaration of Independence, there were
tremendous changes in power which were mostly brought upon through radical acts. Jean-
Jacques Dessalines says, Independence or death... let these sacred words unite us and be the
signal of battle and of our reunion. It is clear that the slaves were fed up with being treated
unequal under French rule. Slaves went from working in the slave plantations to not only
fighting the whites, but even taking them as prisoners, a complete change of power.
The founders of this new Haitian governance wanted equality, freedom, and popular
sovereignty, however achieving this goal deemed difficult. Haiti went from a potentially
prosperous country to a poor struggling one. Most Africans were uneducated. They had no
individualism. They were good for one thing, manual labor. LOuverture, as seen in the video,
took advantage of this temporarily when he realized that the economy was failing. He put the
plantation workers back into the fields, however their feelings towards him changed greatly
when he did this because it was exactly like slavery and they did not really understand the
concept of building a state. They had no direction, however they did have a goal, and that was to
rid Haiti and all neighboring areas of slavery.
In conclusion, the founders of the Haitian governance strived for equality, freedom, and
popular sovereignty. They achieved these qualities through violent acts that led to a lot of
bloodshed not only on the French side, but theirs too. Even though they eventually gained their
freedom, to this day, it is seen that Haiti is a poor struggling country. They are an extremely
hardworking, however economically non-prosperous country.



Works Cited
Corbett, Bob. The 1805 Constitution of Haiti. April 4, 1999. Original document printed July 15,
1805 in the New York Evening Post.
Dubois, Laurent and Garrigus, John. Slave Revolution in the Caribbean 1789 - 1804: A Brief
History with Documents.
galit for All: Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian Revolution. 25JAN2009. Web.
27SEP2013. <http://www.pbs.org/programs/egalite-for-all/>