Common Mexico W

1804 and 1829.

Haiti forced French colonial commissioners to abolish slavery in 1793.

The colony then sent a delegation to the French National Assembly to convince the French government to abolish slavery in the entire Empire.

“The National Convention declares that negro slavery in all of the colonies is abolished, in consequence, it decrees that all men, without distinction of color, living in the colonies are French citizens and will enjoy the rights guaranteed by the constitution,” the Assembly wrote. This was France’s first abolition of slavery, a concession offered to retain the valuable colony within the Empire.

When Napoleon came into power he sought to reestablish slavery, because it was a financially lucrative for France.

“Here is my opinion on this country,” Leclerc wrote in a letter to Bonaparte on Oct. 7, 1802 “we must destroy all of the black people in the mountains — men and women — and spare only children under twelve years of age. We must destroy half of those in the plains and must not leave a single person of color in the colony who has worn an epaulette.”

In 1802, he reinstated slavery in France’s other Caribbean colonies. But the rumors that France would reinstitute slavery in Saint Domingue (now Haiti) sparked the war for Haitian independence in October 1802.

Just over a year later and under the slogan “Freedom or Death,” Jean-Jacques Dessalines led the revolutionary army to victory. On Jan. 1, 1804, Dessalines declared Haitian independence.

Upon establishing independence, Haiti immediately banned slavery. It was the first country to do so. Haiti published its first constitution a year later. Article 2 stated: “Slavery is forever abolished.”

Britain outlawed slavery some 30 years later after the Christmas War in Jamaica, where bloodhounds were used to massacre 500 slaves.

Under pressure, British Parliament passed the Abolition Act a year later. Paid for in the blood of those slaves and many more that came before them.