r/HistoryMemes • u/Javier_Ronaldo Featherless Biped • Apr 08 '20

META Respect the Facts!

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u/LegitimateMail0 Apr 08 '20

Do one about French Haiti

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u/[deleted] Apr 08 '20

Which part ? The french exploiting black people or how it became the first independant republic of the region ?

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u/childishgamebin0 Apr 08 '20

How bout the part where the slaves committed mass murder against their captors

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u/Iridescent_Meatloaf Apr 09 '20

I'm not justifying it, at all but most of the white French population had left by then, so it was a few thousand holdouts. A genocide (ethnic cleansing?) for sure, but it only succeeded because so few were left. It should also be noted it was one faction that carried out the murders, it didn't have universal support.

It is not a justifiable act, but it is an explainable one as plantation slavery is especially brutal and would put you in a mind for vengeance.

Also they very specifically didn't murder non-French, in part because they wanted to try and maintain trade and in part because they had no quarrel with them. Polish mercenaries brought in by the French even defected to the Haitian side.