The Haitian Revolution: the enslaved people who won a nation

Grade 10 Social Studies Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Use this

   Cards A to D. Card A, a summary in our words, written today, from the State Department's Office of the Historian: By the 1760s Saint-Domingue was the most profitable colony in the Americas. Enslaved Africans were the overwhelming majority of its people. Card B, a summary in our words, written today, from a George Mason University and CUNY project on the French Revolution: On May 15, 1791, rights were granted to some free Black men and men of mixed descent in the French colonies, and then taken back. On August 22, 1791, the enslaved people of Saint-Domingue rose up. The project calls it the first successful slave revolt in history. Card C, a summary in our words, written today: In August to October 1793, French agents in the colony abolished slavery there. On February 4, 1794, the French Convention abolished slavery in all French colonies. Card D, a summary in our words, written today: Toussaint L'Ouverture, once enslaved, learned to read and write and became the colony's leading general. By 1800, plantations produced one-fifth of what they had produced in 1789.

2. 1.

   Card B is a summary written today. Ari wants to know what the enslaved people themselves said in 1791. What can card B give?

   • Dates and the order of events, not the rebels' own words, found in documents of 1791
   • Nothing useful, since a summary written today cannot report events that took place in 1791
   • What free men of color wanted, since card B names them and the rights taken back from them
   • The rebels' reasons, since a rising's date and a rights decree show what the enslaved wanted
3. 2.

   Card A comes from a US government history office. Bo asks what that source is useful for.

   • Nothing, since an office of a foreign government cannot report fairly on a French colony's people
   • Why France ended slavery, since the office summarizes French policy toward the colony in 1793
   • How enslaved people lived each day, since a government office reports what is known of the colony
   • Facts about the colony's wealth and population, not how enslaved people lived or what they felt
4. 3.

   Card B calls the 1791 rising "the first successful slave revolt in history." Esme repeats that as settled fact. What is the sound use?

   • Leave it out, since a claim of being first is a superlative and a superlative is unreliable
   • Cite it as the project's judgment; being first rests on a comparison the card omits
   • Use it to show the rising began before any other uprising in the Americas, since it was first
   • Repeat it as fact, since a university project would not print a claim that was open to doubt
5. 4.

   Card B: rights were taken back on May 15, 1791; the rising came August 22. Jun says the withdrawn rights caused the rising. What do the dates allow?

   • The withdrawal came about three months earlier, which fits a link but does not show the cause
   • The colony's profits caused the rising, since card A shows them and the rising is the next event
   • There is no link, since the rights concerned free men and the rising was made by the enslaved
   • The withdrawal caused the rising, since the rising followed and card B dates nothing in between
6. 5.

   Cards B and C: the rising began in August 1791; the colony's abolition came in 1793. Kira says France freed the enslaved on its own. What does the order show?

   • The order of events is irrelevant, since dates cannot bear on a government's motives in any way
   • The Convention acted first in 1794 and the colony then followed, since the colony was a French territory
   • The colony's abolition came two years after the rising began, which fits pressure but not France's motive
   • France freed the enslaved on its own, since the 1793 abolition shows that its motive was principle
7. 6.

   Card D says plantations made one-fifth of their 1789 output by 1800. Luz reads that as proof freedom failed. What is the better reading?

   • The figure means nothing, since output under a system of force is not a fair measure of anything
   • Freedom caused the fall, since output dropped after slavery ended and had not recovered by 1800
   • Output fell after years of upheaval, but card D does not say why or who did worse
   • Output fell by one-fifth, so four-fifths of the plantation economy was still working by 1800
8. 7.

   Milo says, "Card A shows the enslaved majority was bound to win." What does card A support?

   • That a majority wins any contest, since card A gives their number and the wealth of the colony
   • That the colony's profit came from its free men, since the enslaved majority produced no wealth
   • That the majority had already won by the 1760s, since card A is dated to those years in its text
   • A large enslaved majority in a rich colony; the outcome comes later, in cards C and D
9. 8.

   Noah says free men of color and the enslaved wanted the same thing in 1791. How does card B treat the two groups?

   • As unrelated, since the rights were withdrawn in May and the rising came in August, too far apart to matter
   • As opposed groups, since the free men's rights were withdrawn at the very time the enslaved rose up
   • Separately: some free men's rights were withdrawn and the enslaved rose up; the card gives no shared aim
   • As one movement with one goal, since both groups were Black and lived in the same French colony
10. 9.

    Pia writes, "Slavery ended in all French colonies in 1793." What do the cards show?

    • The claim is right, since the agents' act in 1793 applied wherever France held colonies in that year
    • Agents ended it in Saint-Domingue in 1793, and the Convention extended abolition to all colonies in 1794
    • The Convention abolished it first in 1793 and the colony followed in 1794, so the claim is half right
    • The claim cannot be checked, since the card gives two dates for two different acts of abolition
11. 10.

    Cards B and C. Zee asks what each card adds to the story of the end of slavery in the French empire.

    • Card B supplies the rising; card C supplies the two laws, in the colony in 1793 and everywhere in 1794
    • Card B supplies the two laws, and card C supplies the rising of 1791, which came after them in time
    • Both describe the same event from two sides, so either card could replace the other in an account
    • Card C shows the rising was needless, since France ended slavery soon after it and so would have anyway