Haitian enslaved Africans revolted in 1791 amid a four-faction civil war

Evidence

In 1790, Haiti’s enslavers saw the Declaration of the Rights of Man (Article 1: “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights”) as a green light for their independence drive and for their demands for new trade relations to increase their wealth. Free and affluent biracial activists numbering almost 30,000 (slightly less than the White population) started driving for their civil rights. Close to half a million enslaved Africans, who were producing about half the world’s sugar and coffee in the most profitable European colony in the world, heard these curious cries for rights and liberty among the island’s free people. On August 22, 1791, enslaved Africans revolted, inspired in more ways than one by Vodou priest Dutty Boukman. They emerged as the fourth faction in the civil war between White royalists, White independence seekers, and free biracial activists. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 313

Categorization

• XREF: The Declaration of the Rights of Man as a spark to the Haitian Revolution connects to the reader’s interest in whether ideas precede policy — here an idea document precedes a revolt, a potential counterexample to Kendi’s inversion.