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- French Revolution breaks out, 1789
- Slaves revolt, 1791
- Rising rebels, 1792-93
- In 1789, the French Revolution began, motivating tens of thousands of slaves. These Haitians were particularly inspired to initiate a rebellion by the Declaration of the Rights of Man from the French Revolution. France also granted citizenship to wealthy Blacks in 1971. This idea was opposed by the petit blancs in Haiti, and little conflicts followed. This offended the slaves, who then planted the seeds of the Haitian Revolution.
- Slavery aborted, 1794
- WE'RE FREE!!
- Haiti was tense in 1791 and the people were engaged in intense physical and emotional warfare. Toussaint Louverture, a former slave, organized a group of black people who were still in slavery to fight against the plantation owners, which led to the beginning of the Haitian Revolution. On their way to freedom and island rule in August, hundreds of slaves rose up in revolt and staged an uprising that resulted in the deaths of thousands of white people.
- Louverture Captured! 1802
- By 1793, enraged rebels were in charge of one-third of the island of Saint Domingue. Despite French reinforcements, the region that is under the control of hostile rebels expanded along with the bloodshed. When the French and British armies arrived in Haiti, Louverture's men were able to quickly repel them.
- Battle of Vertieres, 1803
- By 1974, white St. Domingue citizens were outnumbered by rebel slaves, and France became concerned. Toussaint Louverture was eventually persuaded to join the fight against the British and Spanish soldiers by France, which had announced the abolition of slavery at the time they were at war with Spain and Britain.
- Napoleon became aware of Louverture's efforts and what he had been doing with St. Domingue in 1802. In order to reinstate slavery, Napoleon dispatched his brother-in-law Charles Leclerc and a fleet of about 50 ships. This was a tremendous achievement because the French soldiers were able to accomplish this in some areas of the island while also capturing Louverture. He was imprisoned and died there, but the Haitian Revolution didn't finish there.
- The Haitian Revolution came to a conclusion with the slaves' victory over the French at the last major fight, the Battle of Vertieres. After Toussaint Louverture was captured and killed, Jean-Jacques Dessaline, a Haitian commander, became the rebels' leader. A rain of thunder and lightning interrupted Rochambeau's final, unsuccessful counterattack, ending the battle and announcing the French defeat and the loss of the island of St. Domingue, once the richest colony in the world.
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