Haitian Revolutions: Crash Course World History #30

Ideas like liberty, freedom, and self-determination were hot stuff in the late 18th century, as evidenced by our recent revolutionary videos. Although freedom was breaking out all over, many of the societies that were touting these ideas relied on slave labor. Few places in the world relied so heavily on slave labor as Saint-Domingue, France's most profitable colony. Slaves made up nearly 90% of Saint-Domingue's population, and in 1789 they couldn't help but hear about the revolution underway in France. All the talk of liberty, equality, and fraternity sounds pretty good to a person in bondage, and so the slaves rebelled. This led to not one but two revolutions, and ended up with France, the rebels, Britain, and Spain all fighting in the territory. Spoiler alert: the slaves won. So how did the slaves of what would become Haiti throw off the yoke of one of the world's great empires? John Green tells how they did it, and what it has meant in Haiti and in the rest of the world.


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  Education

[chichat8]

He got really intense at the end. I felt as if John Green was looking into my soul...

[FashionBeauty06]

Hey, you got a new computer... wow, the things i pay attention to after studying 10 hours straight... kill me #ApTestTomorrow

[Jacob Foster]

My grand-uncle lived in france for 2 years when he was a little kid and was famous for crying whenever someone said something bad about napoleon!

[hugospiegel]

Very cool episode.

[Captdaddyboy]

"Yeah hi, screw all of you!" and the haitian revolution began.

[RoScFan]

What the fuck, John, Why do you hate Napoleon? Why do you like to see Napoleon suffer?

[Karartegirl99]

I don't think he's pronouncing Saint Dominique right. Either that, or he's saying something else entirely.

[Corbin Savich]

2:07, that field looks like a waffle

[MrEdge4Champ2]

Why no Cuban revolution?

[Ashleigh Pagenkopf]

I AM A GIANT SQUID OF ANGER!!!!