Hello and welcome to a history of the United States.

Episode 199 Black Spartacus.

Today we restart the narrative after our pause to tour the United States in the year 1800.

We begin with a topic that's been in the background of our story, but which is crucial to really

follow what's happening in the Jefferson

administration. That is the Haitian Revolution. Before I begin, I need to be clear that the

Haitian revolution is a huge historical topic. What we'll be doing today is basically a thumbnail sketch of a thumbnail sketch.

If you'd like more information on the subject, Mike Duncan has an excellent series on it as part

of the Revolutions podcast. And then of course there is the book Black Sparskus by Sudhir,

Hazaringsing. I can heartily recommend both. However, what I want to cover today is the

background of the Haitian Revolution and take the narrative up to the Leclair expedition. That will be

enough context to explain the dealings that are about to take place between Napoleon and Jefferson.

Consider the episode a brief introduction to the subject or a quick refresher if you're already familiar with it.

The Haitian Revolution is a globally significant event. It is the only successful large-scale slave uprising in history

that resulted in the creation of a new nation, Haiti. It was born out of the French colony

of San Daman. So let's travel to San Demang of the 1780s to first get our bearings for what was about to happen.

Sandeman was a slave colony in a completely different league to what we've been dealing with in the United States so far.

You'll recall from our last episode that slaves made up about 20% of the population of the

United States, with the highest concentration in South Carolina, where they constituted 60%

of the population. In Sandeman, the French colony on the western side of Hispaniola,

enslaved Africans made up approximately

90% of the population.

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