Study Questions 7
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Los Angeles Southwest College *
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Course
270
Subject
History
Date
Dec 6, 2023
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Pages
2
Uploaded by CorporalVulture3873
1.
Prior to the Haitian Revolution Saint Domingue was a French colony. Please explain why this
particular colony was a crown's jewel of France? Who was an original colonizer of the entire
island?
Saint-Domingue became the richest colony in the French Empire and possibly the world during
the French colonial era. Before the Haitian Revolution, Saint-Domingue supplied about 60% of
the coffee and 40% of the sugar that was imported into Europe.
2.
Please describe the society of Saint-Domingue. Who was at the top of the ladder and who was at
the bottom? Why slaves outnumbered whites?
The white elite, or grand blancs, occupied the highest rungs of the social and political hierarchy.
The majority of the black slaves (noirs) at the bottom had been brought from Africa.
3.
Do you think that free-colored people of Saint-Domingue who owned land had equal rights with
white land owners?
Following planter resistance that prevented the National Assembly from granting free people of
color equal rights with whites in 1790, free colored leader Vincent Ogé launched an armed
insurrection.
4.
What legal code regulated treatment of the slaves in Saint-Domingue?
Le Code Noir (the Black Code) of 1685, which outlawed slavery in the French colonies.
5.
How can you compare treatment of slaves in Saint-Domingue with slaves in North America?
Why there was a constant influx of the slaves?
In Saint-Domingue, the largest sugar-producing colony in the Caribbean, slavery was
characterized by extreme brutality and harsh working conditions. Plantation owners in
Saint-Domingue relied heavily on a system known as the "gang system," where enslaved
individuals worked long hours in gangs under constant supervision and experienced high
mortality rates due to overwork and disease.
6.
In 1790, the National Assembly in Paris wrote and adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man,
whose first article declared that "men are born and remain equal in rights." Why the planters
feared that revolutionary principles accepted in Paris would be applied to the slave societies in the
Caribbean?
The planters in the Caribbean feared that the revolutionary principles accepted in Paris would be
applied to the slave societies in the Caribbean due to concerns over the potential impact on their
economic and social systems. The Declaration of the Rights of Man, with its emphasis on equality
and the inherent rights of individuals, posed a direct challenge to the institution of slavery.
Planters in the Caribbean heavily relied on enslaved labor for their agricultural production,
particularly in lucrative sugar and coffee plantations. They feared that the principles of equality
and rights espoused in the declaration could lead to calls for abolition and the emancipation of
slaves in the Caribbean colonies, which would disrupt their economic structure and threaten their
power and influence. As a result, the planters were resistant to the application of these
revolutionary principles to the slave societies in the Caribbean.
7.
Why whites were determined to keep political rights from free people of color?
People of mixed African, European, and Native American ancestry who were not in slavery were
known as free people of color. Everybody who is not regarded as "white" is referred to as a
"person of color" in the US.
8.
Who was Toussaint Louverture? What role he played in the Haitian revolution?
In the French colony of Saint-Domingue, Toussaint Louverture successfully led an uprising
against the slave masters and freed the slaves (Haiti).
9.
When slavery was abolished in Saint-Domingue? What rights received former slaves? Did they
receive land?
Rebels compelled colonial commissioners in Saint-Domingue, now known as Haiti, to outlaw
slavery in 1793. The Haitian Revolution lasted for thirteen years.
10. Why the American slave owners watched wearily what was happening in France and in
Saint-Domingue?
Because a slave uprising had been successful in Saint-Domingue, American slave owners were
anxiously following events there.
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