Freedom at an Impossible Price

The Haitian Revolution was the only successful revolution of enslaved people in history — and the world punished Haiti for it for two centuries. France demanded payment for the freedom its former slaves had already won, and other nations froze Haiti out of trade and diplomacy.

The deeper threat was an idea. Haiti proved that the rhetoric of universal rights could not be contained once released. The same Enlightenment principles that justified the American and French revolutions logically demanded the liberation of everyone in chains.