Summary
The image depicts the aftermath of the battle of Cap Français in which the French were defeated by the British, during the French And Indian War (Sevens Years War). To make things worse the French lost to an inferior British force and as can be seen in the image were then ridiculed by the Haitian people. This image is important because it shows what can be considered the beginning of the end of French rule over Haiti.
In chapter 1 of Latin America Since Independence it states, "In what was perhaps the most audacious act of rebellion in the eighteenth century, on 21 August 1791, the enslaved people of Haiti went to war against the French Empire. If we narrate independence as a story about freedom, Haiti (St. Domingue) is a good place to begin. During the 1780s, St. Domingue accounted for 40 percent of France’s foreign trade, and was arguably the richest colony in Latin America, producing two-fifths of the world’s sugar and half the world’s coffee, virtually the entire volume of each produced by an enslaved population that reached a half million at its peak. A glimpse of the island in 1791 would reveal hundreds of thousands of recently enslaved Africans, persons who had been born free and longed for emancipation. One would also see a small but significant number of free people of color on the island, individuals who were increasingly important to the island’s economy. Some owned enslaved peoples and supported slavery, though they chafed at the fact that the Estates General of the French Revolution denied them political rights" (Dawson 12).
This quote essentially shows that once the enslaved people of Haiti saw that their French overlords weren’t invincible, they began to believe that independence was achievable if they united together. If you look closely at the image you can see that the Haitians began to riot, loot, mock the French, and overall just cause havoc. The French who were too embarrassed after their loss did not really do much to stop this, which would be their own undoing because these would be the same people who inspired the people who would eventually revolt and achieve independence from the French and establish the country of Haiti. Which would send shockwaves to the entire world and in particular to the other colonies in the Americas which in the end would lead to the end of the European colonies in the Americas.
This can once again be seen in the same in the same chapter in which it states, “Eleven years later, after a decade more of civil strife, occupations by British, French, and Spanish armies, and numerous attempts to re-establish slavery on the island, Haitians won their independence. Theirs was the first republic in the Americas to ban slavery. Events in St. Domingue had an impact elsewhere. Uprisings of the enslaved in the Spanish colonies (e.g., Coro, Venezuela, in 1795) followed news from St. Domingue. Planters around the Caribbean responded in kind, increasing discipline on their estates and mercilessly punishing even the hint of resistance”. (Dawson 12).
It can be argued that this image depicts the very moment where the beginning of the end for all European colonies in the Americas began.
Dawson, Alexander. “Independence Narratives, Past and Present.” Latin America since Independence, Third Edition ed., Routledge, New York, New York, 2022, p. 12.
