At the time of the French Revolution nearly half a million slaves toiled on the 8,000 sugar and coffee plantations of St. Domingue, France's largest and most profitable possession in the Caribbean. The mother country's colonial economy depended on slave labour and a bountiful supply of both products. By keeping supply high, the French could keep sugar and coffee prices low, thereby creating an excess demand. This, in turn, required more plantation productivity and workers. Between 1775 and 1790, over 200,000 new African slaves were brought and sold to St. Domingue's plantation owners. They worked within a booming economy, producing nearly half of all the sugar and coffee consumed in Europe and the Americas. St. Domingue was considered a model colony: strategically located, productive, and comparatively free of slave uprisings. It was, in short, a strictly controlled well-oiled machine.

During the American War of Independence a regiment of mulattoes or "free coloreds" from St. Domingue joined the rebel forces. Upon their return, these future revolutionaries began agitating to dismantle the caste system on the island. In time, they were supported by France's own abolitionist society, the Amis des Noirs. As the French Revolution hit the streets of Paris on July 14, 1789, with demonstrators shouting "Liberty! Equality! Fraternity!," storming the infamous Bastille prison, and overthrowing the Old Regime, dissidents in St. Domingue were leaning towards revolt. In 1790, island authorities responded by withdrawing civil rights previously granted to free mulattoes, and some were forced into slavery. A volatile situation was brewing in the "Pearl of the Antilles."

In 1791, a band of over 300 mulattoes under the leadership of Ogé began sowing the seeds of revolution. Pressing for an end to racial discrimination, they caused a wave of panic across St. Domingue. The authorities moved quickly to squash the insurgency. Hundreds were arrested and dozens, including Ogé, brutally executed. It appeared as if order had been restored. But in August the slave population, both Creole and African, rose in open revolt. Beginning in Le Cap, armed with machetes and torches, the slaves descended on one plantation after another. As the insurrection spread through the island's north section, hundreds of Whites were killed and over 1,000 plantations burned to the ground.

This was the beginning of a revolution that would last twelve arduous years. Britain, France, and Spain would all attempt to defeat the rebels, bring the colony under their control, and extend the grip of slavery. War was the only constant. But in these battles of attrition the Blacks were blessed by the inspired leadership of Toussaint L'Ouverture, a former slave who by 1795 commanded an army of 20,000. In the end, decolonization, the abolition of slavery, and independence would be the chief results. Never before and never since has there been such a successful slave revolt.

On January 1, 1804, Haiti became the first independent state in the Caribbean. Between 70,000 and 100,000 European soldiers died trying to prevent this outcome. The international repercussions of "losing St. Domingue to the slaves," of having any territory, anywhere in the New World, where Whites were forbidden to own land, sent a chill through the halls of power in all colonies and mother countries. The sacrifice of white soldiers had been deemed necessary, but the great words—"All men are created equal" and "Liberty! Equality! Fraternity!" —of the American and French Revolutions, proved, for the Haitians at least, too strong.