Episode notes
In 1791, enslaved people in the French colony of Saint-Domingue launched a revolution that transformed the Atlantic world. Over more than a decade of brutal conflict, they defeated colonial armies, resisted the restoration of slavery, shattered Napoleon’s ambitions in the Americas, and created the independent nation of Haiti.
This episode explores the plantation system that made Saint-Domingue extraordinarily wealthy, the rise of Toussaint Louverture, Napoleon’s disastrous military expedition, the decisive Battle of Vertières, and the enormous political and economic price Haiti paid for its freedom.
More than a story of rebellion, the Haitian Revolution was a global turning point. It challenged European empire, exposed the contradictions behind revolutionary declarations of liberty, inspired enslaved and colonized people, and proved that those treated as property could defeat a world power and establish a nation of their own.