DOCUMENT 1: Secondary information about Haiti before the revolution
The French originally cultivated indigo but soon turned to the more profitable crop of sugar cane in the 1690s. In 1697 the Spanish ceded the western part of the island to France.
He French called their half of the island Saint-Domingue. More than 100 sugar plantations were established between 1700 and 1704. Sugar production was very profitable and Saint-Domingue quickly became the richest of France’s colonies. As sugar expanded, so did the slave population.
In 1681, there had been 2000 slaves in Saint-Domingue; in 1701, there were 10,000. By 1720, the French were importing 8,000 slaves each year. Between 1764-1771, 12,500 slaves were arriving each year; 25,000 arrived in 1786; and more than 40,000 arrived in 1787. By 1787, there were 450,000 slaves in Saint-Domingue. At this time, 66% of the French slaves in Saint-Domingue were African-born.
The white French population numbered 40,000, many of whom were aristocrats and landowners from France who needed to earn more money to maintain their lifestyle and positions There were also coffee planters and managers/overseers who earned less money, and then there were poor whites - artisans, shopkeepers, slave dealers, overseers, and day laborers. These whites despised the free Blacks, who numbered about 28,000 and by 1789, owned ¼ of the land in Saint-Domingue
Figure out how many slaves had been brought to Haiti by 1787 based on the information in the passage. Then, graph the increase of slaves and the population of slaves (in different colors, include a key) on a big piece of graph paper.
List bellow
Population of Slaves in Haiti # of Slaves imported into Haiti
Year
1681
1701
1720
1725
1735
1745
1755
1764
1771
1785
1786
1787
1789