Population of Saint Domingue, 1789

Slaves	500,000
Whites	30,000
Free blacks	28,000

1697        Spain cedes the western third of the island of Hispaniola to France -- Saint Domingue

1784-5     reforms to the Code Noir institutes some basic rights for slaves

1789

nearly two-thirds of France's foreign investments based on Saint-Domingue, which exported sugar, coffee, cocoa, and indigo

Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

white colonists in Haiti begin agitating for representation in the metropolitan assembly; opposed by the royalists

Mar -- citizenship granted to all property-owning persons at least 25 years old (in Haiti, free blacks not considered eligible);  free blacks, led by Vincent Oge and Jean-Baptiste Chavannes, engage in armed rebellion and are defeated by colonial forces

May -- the General Assembly (Paris) grants citizenship to free blacks born of free parents

Aug -- slave rebellion breaks out in the northern province in late August (centered on Cap Francois (Cap Haitien)); 1000+ whites killed; free blacks join forces with planters to suppress the rebellion

Sept 21 -- the Colonial Assembly recognizes the Paris decree of May and grants citizenship to all free blacks

Sept 23 -- the General Assembly (Paris) revokes the May Decree and names three commissioners to go to Saint Domingue to restore order

Dec -- the commissioners arrive (with only 6000 troops) and find the whites have attempted to revoke the rights of free blacks (which has led to a break in the alliance between whites and free blacks)

Apr -- the General Assembly finally gives free blacks full citizenship and prepares a second commission, led by Felicite Leger Sonthonax, to enforce the April Decree

France at war with Austria and Prussia

Sept 18 -- Leger Sonthonax and Etienne Polverel arrive as civil commissioners; in alliance with the free blacks they squelch the rebellion of radical whites and contains the slave rebellion by Jan 1793

Jan -- execution of Louis XVI;  some planters support the republic, others become royalists and hope for a restoration of the monarchy

France at war with Prussia, Austria, Spain, and Britain;  the British navy cuts off Sonthonax's supply lines and prepare to invade Saint Domingue from Jamaica

black commanders, including Jean-Francois, Jorge Biassou, and Touissant Louverture, join the Spaniards of Santo Domingo, who arm and supply them to attack the French in Saint Domingue

Aug -- to deal with a royalist rival (General Galbaud) Sonthonax offers emancipation and citizenship to the slave army (15,000 men plus their families) outside Cap Francois in exchange for their loyalty to the republic;  this upsets the planters, free blacks, and petit blancs; Sonthonax then decides to decree the abolition of slavery throughout Saint-Domingue

Sept -- the British land at Jeremie;  white planters have already allied with the British to restore order, make Saint Domingue a British colony, and reinstate slavery

Feb -- the French National Assembly abolishes slavery

the British hold most of the towns on the west coast of the island, though they experience grave problems with yellow fever, lack of supplies, and troop morale

May -- Louverture switches to the French side, uses guerilla warfare to attack both his rival black generals (still allied with the Spanish) and the British

June -- British capture Port-au-Prince

July -- after the French defeat the Spanish in Europe, the Spanish end the war and cede Santo Domingo to the French (though they do not officially hand over the colony); Jean-Francois retires to Spain and Biassou is sent to Florida

an internal power struggle between Louverture (allied with the French) and rival mulatto generals (Andre Rigaud and Villatte)

1798        Louverture launches a campaign against the British and, through diplomatic negotiations, expels them by October

1799        Louverture and Rigaud engage in civil war

Napoleon Bonaparte seizes power in France

Louverture conquers Santo Domingo and eradicates slavery;  he declares himself governor general of Hispaniola for life

Saint Domingue is technically still a colony but acts as an independent state

Napoleon sends General Charles Leclerc with 12,000 soldiers to restore the old regime;  Henri Christophe (one of Louverture's most important generals) leads a guerilla war against the French from the interior

               Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Henry Christophe lead a black army against France

1803        Louverture dies in a French prison

               the French forces in Haiti, under the Viscount de Rochambeau, surrender

1804        the entire island of Haiti declared independent on January 1

               Dessalines assumes the title of Emporer Jacques I in October

1806        Jacques I is killed while putting down a mulatto revolt and Henry Christophe takes over and
                immediately confronts Alexandre Sabes Petion (based in the mulatto-dominated south) in a civil war

1809        with British help, Spanish rule is restored in the eastern part of the island (Santo Domingo)

1820        death of Christophe; Jean-Pierre Boyer (leader of the mulattos) takes over as president

1822        Boyer invades and conquers Santo Domingo

1825        France recognizes Haitian independence

1833        Britain recognized Haitian independence

1844        a popular uprising expels Haitians from Santo Domingo

Carolyn Fick, The Making of Haiti: The Saint Domingue Revolution from Below (1990)

David Barry Gaspar and Geggus (eds), A Turbulent Time: The French Revolution and the Greater Caribbean (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997)