The Haitian Revolution and the Notion of Human Rights

Solution Preview

How did the French Revolution and the ideas of the Enlightenment contributed to the Haitian Revolution.

The French Revolution and the Enlightenment movement and its ideas were the catalyst that gave life to the Haitian Revolution, and without the virtues espoused by these movements, which caused upheaval throughout political structures on both sides of the Atlantic by unabashedly challenging the traditional mercantilist notions of imperial administration as well as fomenting the ideas of equality and justice for all men theoretically. The Enlightenment movement was effective in giving the French colony of Haiti or Santo Dominque as it was known at the time a rational basis for reorganizing state, society, and nation that was predicated upon individual and collective liberty, of political rights, and of class equality, and even to a certain extent, of social democracy that eventually included some unconventional thoughts about slavery. Where the Haitian Revolution differed is that it was the first country, revolution, or nation to espouse human rights for all men, women, etc. regardless of race, age, ethnicity, or any other characteristics. The Haitian Revolution literally took the ideas that were only applicable to "white men" in the Enlightenment movement and applied them to all men.

By doing so, they vastly enlarged the concept of universal human rights almost 200 years before the United Nations would do so after WW2, Haiti truly was far ahead of its time in regard to their ideals and views on equality for all people, which was an expansion of the concept of Enlightenment.

What were different goals of the five main groups in Haiti: wealthy whites, poor whites, mulattos, maroons (escaped slaves encampments), and enslaved people?

Wealthy whites were known as grands blancs as they were the plantation owners , artisans, supervisors while poor whites were known as petit blancs as these whites represented small merchants, proprietors, etc. These whites had vehemently different viewpoints and were antagonistic toward each other as they viewed each other with fear and mistrust. Nevertheless, these whites had mutual fear and distrust toward gens de couler or mulattos, that were free nonwhites and possessed upward mobility, wealth, education, and French culture that placed ...