 Haiti became one of the wealthiest of France's colonies, producing vast quantities of sugar and coffee and depending on a brutal slave system for the necessary labor.Inspired by the message of the French Revolution, Haitian slaves rose up in revolt in 1791, and after decades of struggle, the independent republic of Haiti was officially proclaimed in 1804.Successive waves of Arawak migrants, moving northward from the Orinoco delta in South America, settled the islands of the Caribbean.