ABSTRACT
The social upheaval of the Revolution empowered the bourgeoisie and elevated the Third Estate to a ruling class; it encouraged class consciousness and political activism among the working class; it extended personal freedoms and religious toleration. Saint Domingue was the largest and most prosperous of the French possessions in the Caribbean. In the 1770s, slaves were being imported into Saint Domingue at a rate of thirty thousand per year. The colonial history of Saint Domingue was plagued by racial problems. The island was essentially composed of five different classes: the grands blancs, the petits blancs, the mulattoes, the free blacks and the African slaves. The national interest would not be sacrificed for the sake of humanitarian ideology. The abolition of the slave trade and the emancipation of the slaves were threats to French prosperity, though these threats appeared to be promoted by the principles of the Revolution.
