American founders feared Haitian slave rebellion would infect their own republic.

Evidence

White enslavers throughout the world recoiled in shock and horror. Enslaved people were rising up and asserting their determination to be free at any cost. In the United States—the world’s newest slaveholding republic—President George Washington and the other “founding fathers” openly panicked, nervously speculating about whether the spirit of rebellion would be infectious enough to afflict their fledgling nation. Politicians throughout the country expressed outrage and horror as Black people in a neighboring nation sought their own liberty, even as they basked in the glow of their own revolution, during which they had sought to free themselves from tyranny and oppression. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 365

Categorization

• XREF: Direct echo of the book’s central framing: same revolutionary language used for white liberty is denied to Black self-liberation — connects directly to the reframing thesis throughout the book.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: which specific founding-era documents or letters record this panic in detail, and how did it shape early U.S. foreign policy toward Haiti?