The French Revolution

The French Revolution generated social upheavals in the French West Indies and Saint-Domingue. Most important was the revolt of the slaves which led in 1793 to the abolition of slavery by commissioners Sonthonax and Polverel. This decision was endorsed and generalized to the whole of the French colonies by the Convention six months later. Toussaint Louverture]] was appointed Governor by France, after having restored peace. He drove out the Spaniards and the English who threatened the colony.
Thereafter he restored prosperity by daring measures. When Toussaint Louverture created a separatist constitution, Napoleon Bonaparte sent an expedition of 30,000 men under the command of his brother-in-law the General Charles Leclerc to retake the island. Bonaparte was influenced by the Creole planters and traders. Leclerc was to oust Louverture and restore slavery. After some victories and the arrest and the deportation of Toussaint Louverture, the native leader Jean des Dessalines beat the French troops at the Battle of Vertières. They had been led by Donatien Marie Joseph de Rochambeau. At the end of the double battle for freedom and for independence, former slaves proclaimed the independence of Saint-Domingue on 1 January 1804, under the name of Haiti. Haiti was the first country in the world to abolish slavery.