1794 · Diasporayear only

Fourteen thousand dollars for the planters, nothing for the black refugees

Money raised in a few days for slaveholders had been two years coming for a church.

›Read the full entryClose

Opening… read it as its own page

3 to 4 February 1794 · Haitian

Three men walk into the Convention and slavery ends in the Republic

Belley, Mills, Dufaÿ. One black, one milat, one white. The composition was the argument.

›Read the full entryClose

Opening… read it as its own page

4 February 1794 · Haitian

France abolishes slavery in words that name race, then stops naming it3 sources

The Convention bans the enslavement of black people and makes colonial subjects French citizens.

›Read the full entryClose

Opening… read it as its own page

4 February 1794 · Haitian

The Convention ratifies in Paris what the colony had already taken2 sources

France abolishes slavery across its empire, following rather than leading its Caribbean subjects.

›Read the full entryClose

Opening… read it as its own page

4 February 1794 · Haitian

Toussaint changes sides the moment France outbids Spain on freedom3 sources

News of general abolition turns a Spanish field marshal into a French brigadier overnight.

›Read the full entryClose

Opening… read it as its own page

4 February 1794 · Haitian

The Convention frees every French colony and makes the freed citizens

In practice most remained under forced labour and few could exercise a political right.

›Read the full entryClose

Opening… read it as its own page

7 February 1794 · Haitian

Polverel tells the freed that the land does not belong to them

Take a fifth day off and your share halves; take two and you get nothing and can be expelled.

›Read the full entryClose

Opening… read it as its own page

February 1794 · Caribbeanmonth known

Paris turns emancipation into an instrument of naval warfare

After abolishing slavery, the French Republic exported it as a weapon aimed at British colonies.

›Read the full entryClose

Opening… read it as its own page

28 February 1794 · Haitian

A code of 139 articles bans the whip and prices every other offence

Dismissal and fines replace whipping and mutilation, while obstruction of work stays punishable.

›Read the full entryClose

Opening… read it as its own page

April 1794 · Haitianmonth known

Toussaint stays with the slaveholders for eight months after abolition

He left Spanish service only in April 1794, well after France had freed the colony's slaves.

›Read the full entryClose

Opening… read it as its own page

spring and summer 1794 · Haitianseason

Toussaint changes sides and joins self-liberation to a modern state

The third of the Spanish black generals switched to republican France and hit his old allies at once.

›Read the full entryClose

Opening… read it as its own page

4 June 1794 · Pre-Revolutionary

Britain takes Port-au-Prince by invitation of planters and royalists

Woodward stresses the British were asked in by wealthy men of colour and whites.

›Read the full entryClose

Opening… read it as its own page

June 1794 · Haitianmonth known

News of abolition arrives and Toussaint reopens war on Britain

A British expedition that had nearly won loses its advantage in a season.

›Read the full entryClose

Opening… read it as its own page

1794 · Haitianyear only

No teapot ever celebrated the slaves who freed themselves

France's abolition decree produced souvenirs praising the decree, never the people who forced it.

›Read the full entryClose

Opening… read it as its own page