5. The Extreme Violence of Haitian Slavery Triggered a Correspondingly Extremely Violent Uprising
In order to force the slaves to work in the terrible conditions of Haiti’s sugar cane fields and plantations, slavery had been maintained with extreme violence and brutality. The backlash when the slaves finally rose was in turn extremely violent and brutal from the outset. When the tables were turned, overseers, masters, and mistresses, were dragged from their beds, and the lucky ones were butchered on the spot. The unlucky ones were tortured to death, frequently with the same torture implements and techniques that had been used upon the slaves.
The severed heads of European men, women, and children were often placed on spikes and carried at the head of slave columns as they marched from plantation to plantation. Haiti’s sugar country was the world’s most profitable stretch of real estate at the time. Seemingly overnight, the sugar country was reduced to a smoldering and blood-drenched wilderness. Within weeks, the slaves had killed over 4,000 whites, burned at least 180 sugar plantations, 900 coffee plantations, numerous indigo plantations, and inflicted millions of francs in damages.