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The Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) was a slave revolt in what was then the French colony of Saint-Domingue. It culminated in the elimination of slavery there and the founding of the Republic of Haiti. The Haitian Revolution was the only slave revolt that led to the founding of a state. Furthermore, it is generally considered the most successful slave rebellion ever to have occurred, and a defining moment in the histories of Europe and the Americas. The revolt began with a rebellion of black African slaves in April of 1791. It ended in November of 1803 with the French defeat at the Battle of Vertières. Haiti became an independent country on January 1, 1804, with Jean-Jacques Dessalines being chosen by a council of generals to assume the office of governor-general. He ordered the 1804 Haiti massacre of the white Haitian minority, resulting in the deaths of between 3,000 and 5,000 people, between February and April 1804.〔Philippe R. Girard (2011). The Slaves Who Defeated Napoleon: Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian War of Independence 1801–1804. Tuscaloosa Alabama: The University of Alabama Press. ISBN 978-0-8173-1732-4〕 An independent government was created in Haiti, but the country's society remained deeply affected by patterns established under French colonial rule. Because many white planters had provided for the mixed-race children they had by black African women, by giving them education and (for males) training and ''entrée'' into the French military, the mulatto descendants who along with the wealthy freedmen had been orchestrators of the revolution became the elite of Haitian society after the war's end. Many of them had used their social capital to acquire wealth, and some already owned land. Some had identified more with the colonists than the slaves. Their domination of politics and economics after the revolution created another two-caste society, as most Haitians were rural subsistence farmers.〔 In addition, the nascent state's future was compromised in 1825 when France forced it to pay 150 million gold francs in reparations to French slaveholders—as a condition of French recognition and to end the nation's political and economic isolation. Though the amount of the reparations was reduced in 1838, Haiti was unable to finish paying off its debt until 1947, and the payments left the country's government deeply impoverished, causing instability.〔http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-26/haiti-s-ex-slaves-demand-land-and-mule-from-france-s-cdc.html〕 ==Background== Many of the riches of the Caribbean depended on Europeans' taste for sugar, which plantation owners traded for provisions from North America and manufactured goods from European countries. The island also had extensive coffee, cocoa, indigo, and cotton plantations, but these were smaller and less profitable than the wealthy sugar plantations.〔Thomas E. Weil, Jan Knippers Black, Howard I. Blustein, Kathryn T. Johnston, David S. McMorris, Frederick P. Munson, ''Haiti: A Country Study''. (Washington, D.C.: The American University Foreign Area Handbook Series 1985).〕 Starting in the 1730s, French engineers constructed complex irrigation systems to increase sugarcane production. By the 1740s Saint-Domingue, together with Jamaica, had become the main supplier of the world's sugar. Sugar production depended on extensive manual labor provided by enslaved Africans in the harsh Saint-Domingue colonial plantation economy. The white planters who derived their wealth from the sale of slave-produced sugar knew they were outnumbered by slaves by a factor of more than ten; they lived in fear of slave rebellion.〔 White masters extensively used the threat of physical violence to maintain control and limit this possibility for slave rebellion. When slaves left the plantations or disobeyed their masters, they were subject to whipping, or to more extreme torture such as castration or burning, the punishment being both a personal lesson and a warning for other slaves. Louis XIV, the French King, passed the Code Noir in 1685 in an attempt to regulate such violence and the treatment of slaves in general in the colony, but masters openly and consistently broke the code, and local legislation reversed parts of it throughout the 18th century.〔Laurent Dubois, ''Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution''. (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press 2OO4).〕 In 1758, the white landowners began passing legislation restricting the rights of other groups of people until a rigid caste system was defined. Most historians have classified the people of the era into three groups. One was the white colonists, or ''blancs''. A second was the free blacks (usually mixed-race, known as mulattoes or ''gens de couleur libres'', free people of color). These ''gens de couleur'' tended to be educated and literate, and they often served in the army or as administrators on plantations. Many were children of white planters and enslaved mothers. The males often received education or artisan training, sometimes received property from their fathers, and freedom. The third group, outnumbering the others by a ratio of ten to one, was made up of mostly African-born slaves. A high rate of mortality among them meant that planters continually had to import new slaves. This kept their culture more African and separate from other people on the island. Many plantations had large concentrations of slaves from a particular region of Africa, and it was therefore somewhat easier for these groups to maintain elements of their culture, religion, and language. This also separated new slaves from Africa from creoles (slaves born in the colony), who already had kin networks and often had more prestigious roles on plantations and more opportunities for emancipation.〔Laurent Dubois, ''Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution''. (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press 2004).〕 Most slaves spoke a ''patois'' of French and West African languages known as Creole, which was also used by native mulattoes and whites for communication with the workers.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title= Haiti – French Colonialism )〕 White colonists and black slaves frequently came into violent conflict. Many of these involved slaves who had escaped the plantations. Many runaway slaves—called Maroons—hid on the margins of large plantations, living off the land and what they could steal from their former masters. Others fled to towns, to blend in with urban slaves and freed slaves who often concentrated in those areas. If caught, these runaway slaves would be severely and violently punished. However, some masters tolerated ''petit marronages'', or short-term absences from plantations.〔 Often, however, larger groups of runaway slaves lived in the woods away from control. They often conducted violent raids on the island's sugar and coffee plantations. Although the numbers in these bands grew large (sometimes into the thousands), they generally lacked the leadership and strategy to accomplish large-scale objectives. The first effective maroon leader to emerge was the charismatic François Mackandal, who succeeded in unifying the black resistance. A Haitian Vodou priest, Mackandal inspired his people by drawing on African traditions and religions. He united the maroon bands and also established a network of secret organizations among plantation slaves, leading a rebellion from 1751 through 1757. Although Mackandal was captured by the French and burned at the stake in 1758, large armed maroon bands persisted in raids and harassment after his death.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Slave Rebellion of 1791 )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Haitian Revolution」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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