The Impact of the American Revolution on the Haitian Revolution - Essay Example

and Number 29 November 2008 Haitian Revolution The American Revolution is best known for its political reform. During the Revolutionary Era, it provided much more. Famous historian J. Franklin Jameson was correct with his assertion that “The stream of revolution once started could not be confined with narrow banks” (Wood 5). In his famous quote, he predicted that revolution “spreads abroad upon the land” (5). The spread of revolution upon the land of Haiti was profound. The American Revolution impacted the Haitian Revolution the most socially. To understand the impact of the American Revolution on the Haitian Revolution, it is useful to explore what existed within Haitian society before the revolution. Highlighting, “which thoughts were erased or suppressed before” (Drexler 455) will emphasize the social impact more clearly. Before the American Revolution, the idea of a black men rising up against any white men for any reason would not have been considered. White planters suppressed their slaves harshly. According to the Black Codes that governed Haiti at the time, any small transgression could be punished by 50 lashes, but threatening or harming a master in anyway would result in death or torture (Ros 20). In this society even the white women were cruel; a German visitor witnessed a slave cooked in an oven for burning a pie and serving it to her white mistress (20). This society around every corner as a whole contributed to suppressing the black slaves. The slaves were forced to live in windowless rancid huts. The smell of their homes helped perpetrate the misconception that they chose to live like animals and should be treated the same, or didn’t know any better. The shop windows displayed the latest and most popular “torture instruments: chains, handcuffs, neck clamps, throat rings, and thumb screws” (21). The white planters were not unique in their use of laws to hide and create societal prejudices and hatred. Historically suppressive governments create an unfair society that judges a group for surviving the best they can according to the laws. The Roman suppressed the Christians by enacting public laws that forbade them from meeting during the day in the open. As a result, they met secretly at night. Many in the Roman population felt the Christians were Godless and worshippers of the devil for this practice. They feared the Christians met at night to plot killing the Roman people in their beds. This idea was no more absurd then the laws that existed in Haiti before the revolution that created ideologies and stigmas that black people were no better than animals. The white plantation owners ran their society based on “ignorance and fear” (19). These suppressors counted on the ignorance of the population and the fear of the slaves. The incorrect stigma was evolved to the point that slaves were treated like subhuman. Their false ideations extended to beliefs that the slaves were supposed to be happy and grateful to have food and shelter like all animals and had no greater aspirations beyond that. The white planters used those ideations to excuse their cruel behavior and unfair laws. The American Revolution helped change this ideology. It is important to note that the American Revolution stopped very short of extending natural rights to slaves. In truth, slavery expanded and flourished in the colonies after the American Revolution. This grave error hurt the United States deep into its history far past the Civil War and on into the 1860s when the Jim Crow laws were enacted. The citizens of the United States live with the linger effects of slavery in hot race relations today. However, the American Revolution helped dispel the ugly stigma of the Haitian slaves. It did this by “giving dignity to menial labor in a manner unprecedented in history, which gave respect and even dominance to ordinary people” (Wood 8). Moreover, the American Revolution showed the Haitians that foreign power based society, where the minority made unjust laws for an unrepresented majority was a moral reason to revolt. In Haiti this idea was vital, because the society was comprised of French Officials, white planters, freed blacks, and black slaves (Simpson 640). The French Officials and white planters were benefiting from the labor of the slaves, and they continually created unfair laws to keep the freed blacks from social movement. And, as Jameson had cleverly remarked that revolutions can not be contained, not only did the Haitians have the right to revolt but “die and kill” (Girard 143). Justified and vengeful, the 500,000 black slaves far outnumbered the other social groups of approximately 60,000 (143). The American Revolution’s philosophy of the majority of freemen creating an independent sovereign nation with force became the corner stone of the Haitian Revolution, which resulted in the genocide of the white planters. At the end of the Haitian Revolution, one of the greatest social changes resulting from the American Revolution was the manner in which Haitians defined citizenship. The American Revolution was a blueprint for where to begin in developing rights for its citizens, but in the end became a blueprint of where not to draw the lines for citizens. After the Haitian Revolution, gone were the suppressive whites, who enjoyed the social privileges of their skin color. The Haitian Revolution splashed upon the Haitian people by providing them “self-emancipation, where they were free of their enslavers” (Fick 396). They had freed themselves from a foreign power, but they were the first to abolish slavery and extend natural rights to include “universal principals of equality” (396). The American Revolution had emphatically screamed of independence of government, states rights, but they fell short of fully executing individual rights for all. It was the Haitian Revolution that led the way for individual liberties. It was the Haitians, who first realized that abolishing slavery and creating individual rights didn’t mean expelling prejudice and racism. The government may have reinforced these backward practices, but they were the history and ideology of many of society’s people. There was still great tension between the light skinned free blacks and the dark skinned freed slaves (413). Despite the Haitians triumphs there were many difficulties facing the new nation. One of the most threatening issues facing the liberated nation socially was their place in the global colonial world, which affected them economically. The American Revolution impacted this too. Before the end of the American Revolution, the American colonies were already violating the British Navigation Act, which was put in place to monopolize them and force them to trade almost exclusively with England. As a French Colony, Saint Domingue had similar French laws that forbade them from trading with anyone else. Both colonies defied their foreign power by trading with each other. Before the American Revolution, the colonies were very content to trade with Haiti. John Adams remarked in “The commerce of the French West Indies is part of the American commerce system. They can neither do without us nor we without them” (Brown 20). Although Washington and Adams did not publicly support in their policies the slave revolt, they continue to trade with Saint Domingue. These two administrations felt that they had to protect the Americas new independence by keeping policy sensitive to the French. However, by 1806 Thomas Jefferson, the great penman of the Declaration of Independence, emphatically denied the slaves rights to revolt. He, a southern politician, pushed for the congress to join Spain and France in Boycotting trade with Haiti (22). Jefferson was biased towards their French allies who had in 1803 made the Louisiana Purchase possible. The results were economically devastating for Haiti, who was no longer able to export goods to America. The Americans did not see the Haitians rights for equality as self-evident. This affected the Haitian society, because their position in the world was challenged by the only other democracy in the Western Hemisphere. The Americans apposed Toussaint Louverture’s government and Haiti’s sovereignty, because Haiti had not shown the same independence governing itself that American colonist had before their revolution (133). The American colonies could not have remained united without the support of the Southern states that relied on slave labor. In fact, those who apposed Haiti’s independence despised it the most, because it proved without a doubt that black men were intelligent, capable, and could govern themselves. Ultimately, Haiti was not a perfect democracy. It was a work in progress, but the forced labor system that Toussaint Louverture instituted was backed by the people, and, even the military that supported it and administered harsh punishment, was a better representative of the Haitians then the French monarchy who enslaved them (267). In closing, the American Revolution impacted the Haitian Revolution by changing its society through ideology and foreign policy. The Americans impact was both helpful and regrettable. The founding fathers of the American Revolution had tried to create a contained policy of freedom and equality that was not extended to the slaves. The Haitian Revolution through thirteen years of bloodshed felt the overflow of revolution in the areas of political, social, and economical change. From the American Revolution, the Haitian Revolution had a measuring stick to start their rebellion and an open flood gate against slavery that spread throughout the colonial world, eventually splashing back on the American shores inspiring the Civil War. Works Cited Brown, Gordon. Toussaint’s Clause: The Founding Fathers and the Haitian Revolution. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 2005. Drexler, Michael. "Haiti, Modernity, and U.S. Identities." Early American Literature 43.2 (June 2008): 453-465. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCOhost. University of Phoenix, Phoenix, AZ. 15 Nov. 2008 . Fick, Carolyn. "The Haitian Revolution and the Limits of Freedom: Defining citizenship in the Revolutionary Era." Social History 32.4 (Nov. 2007): 394-414. EBSCOhost. University of Phoenix. Phoenix, AZ. 15 Nov. 2008 . Girard, Philippe R. "Caribbean Genocide: Racial War in Haiti, 1802–4." Patterns of Prejudice 39, no. 2 (June 2005): 138-161. EBSCOhost. University of Phoenix. Phoenix, AZ. 21 Nov. 2008 . Ros, Martin. Night of Fire: The Black Napoleon and the Battle for Haiti. New York: Sarpedon Publishers, Inc., 1994. Simpson, George. "Haiti’s Social Structure." American Sociological Review 6.5 (Oct. 1941): 640-649. Business Source Complete. EBSCOhost. University of Phoenix. Phoenix, AZ. 21 Nov. 2008 . Wood, Gordon. The Radicalism of the American Revolution. New York: Random House, 1991. Read More