Haiti: Race, Slavery and Independence (1804–1825)

‘Recognition of a Black Empire founded upon insurrection and upon the massacre of the white population’, the French prime minister told the British ambassador in 1825, ‘would have a most pernicious moral effect’ ¹ Haiti posed, for the colonial and slave-owning powers, a potential threat. It was seen as a symbol of emancipation and was a sign of hope for the black slaves of the Caribbean and of the southern states of the USA. Ye t despite Villèle's warning, the French government recognised the independence of Haiti in that year, manifestly believing that the economic and political benefits for France outweighed the pernicious moral effects.