How many died in the Haitian Revolution?
Haitian Revolution
In the early 21st century, historian Robert L. Scheina estimated that the slave rebellion resulted in the death of 350,000 Haitians and 50,000 European troops.[93] According to the Encyclopedia of African American Politics, "Between 1791 and independence in 1804 nearly 200,000 blacks died, as did thousands of mulattoes and as many as 100,000 French and British soldiers."[94] Yellow fever caused the most deaths. Geggus points out that at least 3 of every 5 British troops sent there in 1791–1797 died of disease.[95][96] There has been considerable debate over whether the number of deaths caused by disease was exaggerated.[97]
Slavery in Haiti
In addition to escaping, slaves resisted by poisoning slaveholders, their families, their livestock, and other slaves — this was a common and feared enough occurrence that in December 1746 the French king banned poisoning in particular. Arson was another form of slave resistance.
The rapid rate of death of slaves during this period set the stage for the Haitian revolution by necessitating the import of more slaves from Africa. These were people who had known freedom, some of whom had been captured as soldiers and had military training.
Before the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789 there were eight times as many slaves in the colony as there were white and mixed-race people combined. In 1789 the French were importing 30,000 slaves a year and there were half a million slaves in the French part of the island alone, compared to about 30,000 whites.