The Haitian Revolution is a period in Haitian history where the people of Haiti revolted against their colonists – Europe. In 1492, Christopher Columbus is credited for his first sighting of the Island to which he called The Spanish Island. Upon occupying the land, its indigenous people were forced to mine gold for Spain. The population of the indigenous people continued to drop due to European diseases and hazardous working conditions. However, thousands of slaves were imported from the Caribbean Island to replenish the dying population and continue mining.
At the end of the gold mining era, France took it over and established permanent settlements and export businesses. In the 1730s, France became a world power in sugar production. These sugar production factories were engineered by French engineers but supported mainly and extensively by slave labor. To keep up with the demand for labor, France imported more slaves from Africa into Saint-Domingue. By 1789, Haiti’s population was made up mostly slaves from Africa, placing the numbers around half a million African slaves, 32,000 European colonists, and 24,000 freed mulattoes– anyone mixed of African and European descent. A good majority of the slaves were from the Yoruba tribe of West Africa–– Nigeria.
Most of the mulattoes also called the affranchis were free and some of them even owned slaves who aspired to be on the European level. Nonetheless, it was this aspiration that gave momentum to the rise of the Revolution.
Toussaint Louverture: Known as the leader/hero of the Haitian Revolution. Louverture is a former slave who learned how to play the political game– support for France while negotiating against Britain. He gave some amount of allegiance to France, at the same time pursuing his own political ambition. He and other freed slaves were tired of the brutality and racism they faced from the colonial settlers and started an uprising.
By the 1790s, Toussaint Louverture had gained control of several lands and name himself governor. He received a lot of push back from General Charles Leclerc but eventually in May of 1802, they agreed to a truce. However, France does not hold up its end of the bargain, and Louverture was arrested and taken to prison in France.
Vincent Ogé: Referenced in the play as Marianne Angelle’s spy husband. He was a mulatto, a wealthy free man of color leading his own troop during the Haitian Revolution. When the French Revolution started, Ogé was in Paris at the time and as time went on, he and two others formed a group to mount pressure on the assembly to award free men of color voting rights.
Upon his return to Saint Domingue, Ogé and other free men of color gathered a militia army. He led an army of 250-300 free men of color. However, his militia was no match for the professional soldiers of Spain. He later entered a truce agreement with Spain in exchange for protection. However, the Spanish authorities returned him to the government of de Blanchelande in Le Cap and he was executed publicly.