The Haitian Revolution (1791-1803) fundamentally altered the history of democracy and human rights forever. I believe human rights are of the up-most importance to how we see ourselves as egalitarian citizens of the world, and it was at this point in history where slaves, through struggles of war and violence, fought to become citizens of an empire that had enslaved them, and become founders of a new nation.

The formation of colony, the early conflicts, sugar and wealth were all at the heart of the largest slave owning society in the world. The Haitian Revolution is a fundamental moment in since it was the first slave revolt to have a successful outcome.

I thought it interesting how Dubois showed the different experiences of Saint-Domingue to different groups of people, not just from a class perspective, but a gendered one too, for example women were responsible for “production and reproduction”(p47) and were excluded from the most prestigious jobs within the plantation system, this shows a wider context to the struggle of women who fought in the revolution too.

The Revolution showed what could be achieved in the fighting for liberty for all slaves in the French empire, challenging its imperial authority, further to become a battle over racial equality and the inhumane act of slavery itself. The revolution changed approaches to freedom. The scale of such a Revolution, and the changes it made to formulations towards independence and autonomy were fundamental to ideas of rights that were accessible to all, universal, and beyond racial barriers – to own property, to have citizenship, free from incentives and sacrifices, and this dedication to the inherent equality of individuals can be seen in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948