United States And The Haitian Revolution
The Haitian Revolution provoked mixed reactions in the United States. Southern Slaveholders feared that the slave revolution might spread from the island of Hispaniola to the slave plantations of the Southern United States. They believed that the African people who they enslaved would be inspired by the Haitian Revolution. American merchants conducted a substantial trade with the plantations on Hispaniola (aka the French colony of Saint Domingue or Haiti). But there were anti-slavery advocates in northern cities who believed that consistency with the principles of the American Revolution — life, liberty and equality for all — demanded that the U.S. support the slave insurgents.
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