Today in class I watched an interesting movie on the Haitian Revolution, now I’m going to create a blog post as a follow up to the movie. I decided to write about the how the Haitian Revolution was influenced by Enlightenment ideology, and how Toussaint L’Ouverture used this ideology to win the revolution. I choose this because it is a topic that interests me. Now, before I start to talk about how these ideals affected the revolution, we need to first be familiar with what these ideals were. Some of the basic Enlightenment ideals were political, social and economic equality for male citizens, and representative government. As learned in class, all throughout history revolutions occur because of new ideals that change the thinking of that time period, sometimes for progression, and sometimes for regression of a country.
In the case of the Haitian Revolution of 1789-1804, these new ideals had a huge impact on the progression of its country. This Enlightenment philosophy made its way to the Caribbean, and influenced the people to free themselves from France! One slave in particular was strongly influenced by these Enlightenment ideas: his name was Toussaint L’Ouverture and he was the leader of the Haitian Revolution. Toussaint was a special case, being a slave on a plantation for the bulk of his childhood he had a better life than other slaves, learning to read and write at a young age. He was able to educate himself because his master was nicer than other slave masters during that time, which is why when the revolution began, his loyalty remained to France.
However, things changed in the Fall of 1791. L’Ouverture soon realized that Haiti's conditions were unlivable for the slaves because of how slave owner’s abused them, and how they ignored the inhumane work of slaves. L’Ouverture wanted liberty and equality for all, showing his strong belief in enlightenment ideals. His strong beliefs allowed him to be a good leader during the revolution. Ultimately, these Enlightenment ideals are what inspired L’Ouverture to become a strong and successful leader for the slave revolt in Haiti. Often, scholars have depicted slaves during the revolution as following L’Ouverture blindly, however this is not true. (Toussaint L'Ouverture: a biography and autobiography, John Relly Beard & James Redpath) L’Ouverture actively used the ideas of the Enlightenment philosophy, empowering him to gain many followers who agreed with his philosophy, which led slaves to become successful in winning the revolution. Although L’Ouverture didn’t live to see the results, his main goal of separating Haiti from France was a success!
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