What Was The Causes Of The French Revolution

“Let them eat cake” is a very popular quote that you may have heard before. It was supposedly said by the Queen of France, Marie-Antoinette, during the late 18th century in the middle of an outbreak known as the French Revolution. There were many causes that lead to the Revolution, including the third estate´s predicament. They struggled with being denied basic rights, over taxation, and neglect from the monarchy.

Similar to the American Revolution, the Haitians too seeked to create a republic founded on the values of the Enlightenment - but unlike the Americans, Haiti took this a step further, by outlawing slavery and becoming the first modern nation ruled by Africans. As the French Revolution began, there was a political crisis in St. Domingue, France’s wealthiest colony, and supplier of nearly 40% of Europe’s sugar imports. Planters were threatened by the Revolution, which aimed to remove many of the privileges enjoyed by the aristocracy (who made up the planter class). Wealthy free blacks, some of who owned plantations themselves, began to demand equal rights to whites. Poor whites, felt that the Revolution did not include blacks, and imagined a new society where they had enough to own slaves themselves. Out of the chaos of this political struggle, the slave population of St. Domingue, which made up nearly 90% of the colony’s population, revolted and seized power for themselves. By 1794, Haiti had seen one of the largest, and successful, slave rebellions in the course of human

The primary causes of the American Revolution were because of the unjust treatment of the colonists. The French and Indian War was extremely expensive for Britain, so to pay off the debt they decided to tax the American colonies. Several taxes were created, one of them was the Stamp Act. This act required the colonists to pay taxes on every piece of paper that was used, such as legal documents, licenses, newspapers, ship’s papers, etc.

Toussaint L’ouverture was not only a good liberator but he was also a great ruler of Saint Domingue. Saint Domingue was not a good country without Toussaint. Toussaint was a great leader for Saint Domingue and changed their lives forever. He wrote a document that restricted the slaves. (Doc. C) He created this document so that the slaves are free but, they still have to follow the rules like all the others. Toussaint also created a proclamation stating that “Any individual… tending to incite sedition shall be brought before a court martial and be punished in conformity with the law.” (Doc. D) Toussaint states here that if any slave that breaks the law will go to the military court and be punished with the law. He uses this law to help all the

b. François Toussaint L’Ouverture became the leader of the former slaves. Toussaint remained in charge in the following many years of frequent battles, but in 1802 he was captured by French forces and later died in a French prison.

In 1801, Toussaint signed The Saint Domingue Constitution, and he made his stance on freedom and equality very clear. In Article 3, he states, “There cannot exist slaves in this territory, servitude is therein forever abolished. All men are born, live, and die free and French,” (The Saint Domingue Constitution of 1801). Although Toussaint preaches about freedom and equality, when he did abolish slavery, he continued to make people of Saint Domingue work on plantations, and similarly to the abolition of slavery in the United States, life as a sharecropper was not much better than the life of a slave. In 1801, he proclaimed, “As soon as a child can walk, he should be employed on the plantation according to his strength in some useful work.”

In San Domingues there were slaves called Haiti. In document doc A king louis xiv in 1685 remained in force until french legal code regulation of slavery in the west indies and french own the plantain of the San Domingues and these code was a law for for the Haitian people. In document B, in 1789 the Marquis de Lafayette and thomas jefferson created a equal rights for all mankind but the slaves didn't get the right so they revolted since they were not treated respectively.

However, when Napoleon Bonaparte attempted to reinstate slavery at the beginning of the 19th century, there was much objection specifically by Toussaint (de Breda) Louverture. Toussaint created a new constitution for Saint-Dominque without slavery and placed administrators in charge over the islands government, commerce, and legislation (Dubois/Garrigus,169). Napoleaon sent troops to Saint-Dominque, arrested Toussaint and deported him to France; however, this only furthered intensified the fighting. After much strife, Napoleon eventually gave up and the Haitian Declaration of Independence was created on January 1, 1804 and later a constitution in 1805 (Dubois/Garrigus,188).

Even though there were a large number of African Americans on the plantation, the whites still owned them, being merchants, slave masters, etc. This land was a major target for sugar, everybody wanted this land. Following the revolution, the meaning of “rights” was different for the whites and blacks. As Strayer quotes on page 793 in the textbook, “To the slaves, the promise of the French Revolution was a personal freedom that challenged the entire slave labor system. Slaves burned 1,000 plantations and killed hundreds of whites.” As a part of the African American race, there was a former slave who led the blacks to a victory over the French rule. This former slaves name was Toussaint Louverture. Following the revolt, many British people realized that slavery was going against human rights. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen outlined the rights that humans were supposed to be given. Some of these rights included “natural rights, political and civic rights”, according to (Strayer, 812). So as a result of the revolt and abolition, people were now agreeing that slavery violated the African American human rights.

As a result of being outnumbered, slave owners feared rebellions which would remove them from their position of power. This fear is largely to blame for the especially hard conditions for slaves in the colony of Saint Domingue. On the majority of plantations for example slaves were forbidden to meet with other slaves, and harsh overseers were employed to make sure that the slaves cooperated.

The nature of the revolution fell behind the main two leaders of the resistance who were Toussaint L’Ouverture and Jean Jacques Dessalines. Although the very first major slave rebellion in the North began in 1791 with the Voodoo ceremony at Bois Caïman, which L’Ouverture did not partake in. L’Ouverture, who became a great military leader after attaining freedom from slavery, in 1791 he got involved with the negotiations between the French Governor ad rebel leaders to at least create better conditions for the slaves. These conditions were first declined and then a couple years later into the revolution he became completely committed to the abolition of slavery. L’Ouverture and his army fought for abolition, finally in 1794 the French government

Sugar cane fields and plantation houses were burned and captives were murdered and raped. On December 1791, Toussaint led his men into their first mission. They successfully captured over 100 powerful white businessmen in the city of Cap-Haitien. The slaves were quick to demand the killing of them all, but Toussaint stopped the idea and reminded his soldiers that they were fighting under him, and therefore will not let them undermine his authority. Alone, He rode his horse to the colony's governor general, headquarter and made him an offer, which was he would release the captures, in exchange for a ban on the use of whips on slaves, an extra non-working day besides Sunday, and freedom for a handful of

The Haitian Revolution was a successful anti-slavery and anti-colonial insurrection by self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue, now the sovereign nation of Haiti. It began on 22 August 1791 and ended in 1804 with the former colonies independence. It involved blacks, mulattoes, French, Spanish, and British participants—with the ex-slave Toussaint L'Ouverture emerging as Haiti's most charismatic hero. It was the only slave uprising that led to the founding of a state which was both free from slavery, and ruled by non-whites and former captives. It is now widely seen as a defining moment in the history of racism in the Atlantic World.

The decree had many consequences in French colonies, most notably in Saint-Domingue (today Haiti) where slaves had begun a large-scale uprising against their masters in 1791 and where French commissioners Sonthonax and Polverel had effectively abolished slavery in 1793. Historians have long accepted that the Convention’s bold move triggered Toussaint Louverture decision to change alliances and abandon the Spanish to fight with France.

The war became more complicated in 1793 when the British invaded Saint Domingue. The Spanish, who had a colony on the eastern two-thirds of Hispaniola, also entered the fray by supporting armies of escaped slaves, including a force under the command of an ex-slave named Toussaint Louverture. Pressed on all sides, commissioners from republican France, led by Leger Felicte Sonthonax in the northern part of the colony, began to extend freedom and citizenship to every slave in summer and autumn 1793. Inspired by this application of the rights of man, the French National Convention abolished slavery in all French possessions on February 4, 1794.