JCB Archive of Early American Images, Accession number: 69-213, Incendie du Cap. Révolte générale des Nègres. Massacre des Blanca.
Formerly the agricultural French colony of San Domingue, Haiti was the first of all colonies of the American continent to achieve its independence. Starting in 1791 and ending in 1804, the war for independence lasted a total of 12 years. Home to nearly half a million enslaved Black people at the time of its revolution. At its inception “roughly from 1690 to 1720, the number of slaves rose from just 3,000 to well over 47,000” (Fick, 55). From there on out their numbers only continued to rise until the enslaved population had become the island colony’s majority. Young and predominantly male, the enslaved population worked on sugar cane and coffee plantations, which required arduous backbreaking labor. Overworked, underfed, abused and subjugated to abhorrent living conditions, the mortality rate on the island was high leading to a high turnover rate for the enslaved people.
With a century of control of the colony under France’s belt, only 28,000 of the Black and mixed-race population was free at the time of the revolution. Revisions to the Code-Noir in the 1720’s and 80’s and small insurgencies formed by the free people of color in 1790; along with the eventual disenfranchisement of French slavers and colonists with the French government, would lead to war. Efforts to create order would prove futile, Commissioners “Leger Sonthonax and Etienne Polverel, who had been sent to the colony in September 1792 along with 6,000 troops to restore order” failed (Frick, 63). Black rebels and White seditionists, each allied with either the Spanish or British caused the colony to buckle. The arrival of a new Governor-General, who cared not for the Commissioners only brought the colony to its knees.
In the drawing above a scene of chaos ensues, engulfed in flames, a city by the sea burns. Titled “Incendie du Cap, Revolte generale des Nègres, Massacre des Blancas”, it translates to “Cape Town fire, General revolt of the Blacks, Massacre of the Whites”. The drawing depicts the burning of the colonial capital Cap-Francais in the year 1973. According to the Frick reading “During the fighting a fire broke out and spread rapidly, in the end destroying two-thirds of the city” (Frick, 65). To the left of the drawing rows of buildings exhale smoke from their windows and roofs indicating the fire is coming from within. From these rows of buildings groups of White people flee in terror. White women holding infants in their arms as small children and the elderly run alongside them towards ships in the sea. Their faces turn to stare at the body of a White male on the ground behind them as they run, as he lies there a woman grips to his lifeless corpse. A Black man, presumably enslaved due to his ripped pants and short sleeve shirt, runs with a sword in hand only looking forward. The other sword-wielding Black men feature similar clothing, their White counterparts are covered head-to-tie in full length pants and long-sleeve shirts. In the distance Black bodies lie on the ground but no one stops to look at them, the Black men only look forward. They can be seen slaying people to the ground and battling against White soldiers with firearms who appear to be the only barrier between them and the ships. More people can be seen attempting to reach the ship’s ladder, aboard the ship a mix of civilians and armed men pointing their guns at those on shoreline.
As we learned in class and from the readings Haiti, the drawing depicts one of many battles during the revolution. Here depicting the events of 1793 in Cap-Francais in which the Commissioners forces, “the mulattoes and the cities black slave population, some ten thousand strong” fought against the Governor-General’s forces (Frick, 65). Not only does it depict the battle itself but the scope of its impact. It bears remembering that the enslaved population and free population of color was significantly larger than that of the White slavers and colonists. It provides insight into the early years of the revolution and the never before terror experienced by Whites, to be slaughtered by the ones they slaughtered. The disbelief that Black people could rise against them and in fact cause real damage.
Works Cited
Fick, Carolyn. “The French Revolution in Saint Domingue: A Triumph or a Failure?” In A Turbulent Time: The French Revolution and the Greater Caribbean, edited by David Barry Gaspar and David Partick Geuggs, 51-75. Indiana University Press, 1997.