Revolution from within

Clergy members, intellectuals, educators, newspapermen, military personnel, and politicians worked to gain rights for free people of color and to end slavery in revolutionary Saint-Domingue. These contributions have been largely overlooked in the historiography of the Haitian Revolution, as well as the scholarly works on race and abolition. Most often, historians associate movements toward racial equality in Saint-Domingue with slaves or free people of color, but they have overlooked an active white segment of the population in the colony. However, white participation is evident in the archival and printed primary sources. Considering the long history of slavery and the status of Saint-Domingue as the "pearl of the French Antilles," examples of interracial collaboration are extraordinary, but less in the documents than in the historiography. Tracing the contributions of whites does not degrade the centrality of the slaves and free people of color in the revolution. Instead, it adds complexity to our historical understanding of an event typically defined by a stark contrast between black and white. Saint-Dominguan racial ideologies were far more fluid than has been assumed, and the Haitian Revolution further challenged the presumed natural hierarchy within the colony. My dissertation demonstrates that the Haitian Revolution was not just a revolution of slaves or even free people of color, but rather a broader phenomenon that touched all aspects of Saint-Dominguan society and included peoples of all colors.