Haitian Revolution Begins: Largest Slave Uprising in Western Hemisphere History

On the night of August 22, 1791, enslaved people in Saint-Domingue (Haiti) launched a coordinated uprising that began at the Bois Caïman ceremony led by Dutty Boukman. Within weeks 100,000 enslaved people had risen, burned over 1,000 plantations, and killed hundreds of white colonists. The revolution continued for 13 years under leaders including Toussaint Louverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and Henri Christophe. It terrified American slaveholders and triggered emergency measures. South Carolina suspended slave imports; Congress later banned immigration of free Black people from the Caribbean. France was forced to abolish slavery in 1794; Haiti declared full independence in 1804.