Essay on French Revolution Vs Haitian Revolution

The revolution that I’ll be discussing for this task is the Haitian Revolution. Haiti was France's most profitable colony. The island had focused nearly entirely on the production of sugar since the seventeenth century. The island, which was referred to as the Pearl of the Antilles, had produced a significant amount of profits, but amongst the wealth was one of the most brutal governments in the world. (Acrobatiq, 2017)

Haiti possessed its own unique racial and social compositions on the island. The majority of the inhabitants on the island were not free Africans, they were enslaved and there were nearly half a million in the island colony in 1791. On the sugar plantation, labor, and work conditions were not ideal, they were hot. Men and women who were part of the enslaved hardly lived ten years following their arrival. Because of this, the colony was always in need of new captives. In the 19th century, most captives came from the Kongo region of western-central Africa. The colony only contained approximately 20,000 free people. They were mixed and African heritage, and collectively were referred to as “gens de couleur” or people of color. Some of them were wealthy and educated, but in the 1770s-80’s, the whites of the island continually developed and refined the discriminatory efforts that had been designed to humiliate them. Above them in social ranking, however, frequently mixing into their daily lives, was a class of white artisans and professionals referred to as the “petits blancs” or little whites. Together, these groups constituted a verging of a divided bourgeoisie. At the top of the social and economic pyramid were the wealthy planters, referred to as the “grand blancs” or large of great whites. They were the ones that ran the island and had essentially served as the aristocracy. They lived in their social world of lavish parties, a leisure society, and games. (Acrobatiq, 2017)

The Haitian Revolution had begun as a wing of the French Revolution but it quickly transformed into the most successful slave rebellion that had ever happened. The French Revolution had changed men from kings to just regular civilians. While France itself was a society lacking equality, its Caribbean slave colonies had been built on what some would call an “aristocracy of the skin” and were upheld by spiteful violence and the dehumanization of thousands and thousands of people, regardless of gender. (Acrobatiq, 2017)

In the late 18th century, approximately one-third of French foreign trade by value was in the form of sugar and sugar byproducts from Saint Dominque, the wealthiest of the French West Indian colonies and perhaps the most important. There was a constant arrival of ships which meant that the ideology from Europe also travelled across the ocean, including those from the Enlightenment thinkers and revolutionary France. Some from Saint Dominque welcomed the new ideology and others opposed them. The Grand Blancs faced concern when certain Enlightenment thinkers attacked slavery. In 1770, work from Abbe Guillaume-Thomas Raynal had called for a black Spartacus to terminate the tortures and indignities that Africans and those of African descent had been suffering. The wealthy whites were also unfavoring to the emphasis on the freedoms and rights of the middle class, which were represented by Saint Dominque specifically the petits and the gens de coulers. Meanwhile, the petit blancs welcomed the new ideology of justice and freedom because they resented the grand blancs and their aristocratic dominance. The gens de couleur desired to participate in the making of political decisions and the social life of the colony as well but found that the petits blancs were joined by the grand blancs in rejecting their claims. Nearly all the whites of the island were strongly backing the principles of white supremacy and the necessity of keeping slavery as well as the discriminatory laws against those Africans that were not a part of slavery. This uniting of whites and their oppositions is what would ultimately bring the problem of racial equality before the National Assembly in Paris, where the French revolutionaries were not accepting of the obvious discrimination against free men. The beginning of the Haitian Revolution in Saint Dominque began when the bourgeoisie, the petit blancs and gens de coulers, began to rally for political rights and equality. It’s to be believed that the petit blancs led the revolution, essentially creating an army to seize power from the aristocratic planters. The French National Assembly gave political rights to the gens de coulers resulting in the middle class joining the grands blancs in opposing that transformation. The free Africans and those of mixed heritage faced their only option of rising in various parts of the colony. In the midst of that, some of the rebellious groups had called on slaves and become quite profound. (Acrobatiq, 2017)

Following the Haitian Revolution, many observers, including the United States, were hesitant for others to hear the stories of black armies defeating the white armies. Those stories would undermine the tales of whites being the superior groups. The Haitian Revolution also ended the plantation complex as it had once been in previous modern times. Slavery continued into the 19th century and various nations had chosen to banish the slave trade by the early 1800’s. As a result, investors sought new forms of imperialism based on gaining control over the foreign markets and laborers and no longer relying upon slavery. (Acrobatiq, 2017)

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B. During the late 18th and 19th centuries, a progression of revolutions broke out in Europe's American colonies as well as the European continent. These series of revolutions fostered the development of the ideology of the “nation” being a brand new political unit. With this new form of political unit, came the emergence of a political and cultural language with the notion that these nations were being established with the rights of self-governance. That was the birth of modern nationalism which was defined as a form of political loyalty that had been built upon the rights as well as the obligations of the national community. The group of people that had been defined by nationalism, shared a common language, culture, religion, and racial or ethnic backgrounds. During the Romantic movement, the Romantics assisted in giving orderliness to the ideology of each nation having a similar or common culture by writing and popularizing national stories as well as myths. (Acrobatiq, 2017)

American colonists found a new sense of independence. Their independence was expressed in various ways. One way is that they possessed a particular frontier righteousness of independence and toughness. Another is that they identified with the local stories and history of America. (Acrobatiq, 2017)

Regarding the French Revolution: their nationalist view had mainly manifested itself most prominently with the French Revolution which began in 1789. The ideology of a nation centered around a group of people that imagined themselves as being included in a political community that differed from the rest of humanity, and based on the belief, deserving of self-determination. Countries that were a part of the nationalist way of thinking included Europe, The Americas, France, and Germany as well. (Acrobatiq, 2017)

C. The Industrial Revolution transformed the nature of work and labor. Independently running machines completed tasks that were once only completed by the power of humans and animals. This change with the Industrial Revolution was more cost-effective and jobs were done faster. One consequence of the Industrial Revolution was an economic one. The use of powered machinery allowed for a notable increase in the productivity of society, allowing for more to be completed and produced from less. Another consequence of the Industrial Revolution can be exemplified by the Russian autocratic government. The Russians feared that rapid industrialization was just as dangerous as the rise of the large laboring classes in their cities. The Russian government also harbored fear of the potential revolutionary aftermath that could follow. During this time of revolutions, governments were fearful of inciting a revolution. In Russia, most Russians were serfs, meaning they were legally bound to their land and could not leave without being granted permission from their masters. As a result of this, even as factories were opening, only a very limited amount of Russians were granted the choice and the freedom to leave the land and pursue working in those factories. In the United States, a positive consequence to come from the Industrial Revolution was the many laws that came that favored the needs of the factory owners as well as investors over workers and consumers. The government also displayed support to the U.S. industry by following expansionist policies that had brought the North American continent under their control as well as the attempt to dominate the Pacific Ocean with intentions of both political and production influence. (Acrobatiq, 2017)

Families were typically extended and large, however, following the Industrial Revolution, the family dynamics and structure had become what is referred to as a small nuclear family. At this time, it was not uncommon to see a person of child age working alongside adults. In Britain, many of the workers were women and children. This was a result of the men's income alone not being sufficient enough to provide for their families. Working conditions were under severe circumstances. Work days were now longer and more strenuous, 14 hours a day, every day of the week. Many workers faced death as a result of inhaling chemicals, being burned, as well as being hurt by machines. (Acrobatiq, 2017)