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?

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

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

   • 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
   • Leave it out, since a claim of being first is a superlative and a superlative is unreliable
   • Repeat it as fact, since a university project would not print a claim that was open to doubt
4. 3.

   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 Jun says the withdrawn rights caused the rising.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 colony's profits caused the rising, since card A shows them and the rising is the next event
   • The withdrawal caused the rising, since the rising followed and card B dates nothing in between
   • The withdrawal came about three months earlier, which fits a link but does not show the cause
   • There is no link, since the rights concerned free men and the rising was made by the enslaved
5. 4.

   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?

   • Output fell by one-fifth, so four-fifths of the plantation economy was still working by 1800
   • Freedom caused the fall, since output dropped after slavery ended and had not recovered by 1800
   • The figure means nothing, since output under a system of force is not a fair measure of anything
   • Output fell after years of upheaval, but card D does not say why or who did worse
6. 5.

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

   • A large enslaved majority in a rich colony; the outcome comes later, in cards C and D
   • That a majority wins any contest, since card A gives their number and the wealth of the colony
   • That the majority had already won by the 1760s, since card A is dated to those years in its text
   • That the colony's profit came from its free men, since the enslaved majority produced no wealth
7. 6.

   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 one movement with one goal, since both groups were Black and lived in the same French colony
   • Separately: some free men's rights were withdrawn and the enslaved rose up; the card gives no shared aim
   • As opposed groups, since the free men's rights were withdrawn at the very time the enslaved rose up
8. 7.

   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
   • The claim cannot be checked, since the card gives two dates for two different acts of abolition
   • 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
9. 8.

   Ren separates conditions from events in cards A to C. Which list does that correctly?

   • Condition: the rising of August 22, 1791; event: a rich colony with an enslaved majority in the 1760s
   • Condition: a rich colony with an enslaved majority; grievance: rights withdrawn in May; event: the rising
   • Condition: the Convention's abolition of 1794; event: the withdrawn rights of May 1791 in the colony
   • Condition: Toussaint's leadership of the revolt; event: the profits of the colony in the 1760s
10. 9.

    Cards A and D together. Tala asks which question the cards can help answer.

    • How the output of a colony known for great wealth changed between 1789 and 1800, but not why
    • Why Toussaint learned to read and write, since card D says he learned and then led the army
    • Whether freed people produced less by choice, since card D shows output falling after abolition
    • How much profit France earned in 1800, since card A gives profit and card D gives output
11. 10.

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

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