In 1791 a group of slaves on the island of Hispaniola took up arms in a revolution against their French masters and won, making it the only slave revolt to be successful.....

Just The Facts

  1. Haiti was an extremely wealthy French slave colony.
  2. The slaves rebelled against their masters, then fought Napolean's army and won.
  3. They were promptly screwed over by their leaders who have kept them in poverty ever since.
  4. They totally brought us voodoo and zombies.


Actually succeeding unlike any other slave uprising around the world, the Haitian people fought a brutal battle against their French masters and won independance and emancipation for themselves 50 years before the American Civil War.

Boukman a Voodoo (Vodun) Priest led a ceremony on August 22, 1791 signaling with voodoo drums for the slaves to rise up and kill their masters. This began a war for independence from Napolean's France that they ultimately won in 1804.

Picture yourself as a plantation owner sitting down to dinner when off in the distance you hear drums start sounding. Louder and louder the drumbeats echo from the mountains and then all over the colony the slaves rise up in battle killing every slave owner they can get their hands on. They didn't spare the women and children. They showed no mercy towards their masters and turned the island in to a virtual blood bath.

Their Leaders

In one of history's greatest ironies, the only group of slaves to ever win their independence in armed rebellion were immediately screwed over by the people they chose to rule them. The top 2% of Haitians have held 95% of the wealth ever since and have done everything they could to keep the population poor.

The list of Presidents/Emperors/Kings who grabbed power and fought against each other is incredible. In the 1950's President Papa Doc Duvalier replaced the military with his own security force, the Tonton Makoutes ( creole for bogeyman) known for terrorising, kidnapping and killing anyone who challenged his power.

Even up until the present day Haitian politics have been dominated by power grabs and rebellions leaving the people without any real hope for a change in their Third World status.

Pretty shitty.

Voodoo and Zombies

But even with the world taking a big old dump on them, they have given more than their share to modern culture.



Need I say more?