Bury the Chains: Chapter 18

In chapter 18 of Bury the Chains, Adam Hochschild starts off with talks about the abolitionist movement, and the effect it is having over the western world in the 1790's. In France revolutionaries removed all visible evidence of the old regime. In an even more gruesome fight, St. Domingue, a French colony, saw the largest and bloodies slave revolt the world had ever seen (Pg. 256). News of such atrocities sent waves of horror through Europe because for the first time we see white people being killed by the hundreds and th0usands.
When word of St. Domingue hit London stock prices fell and panic struck the slave holders of London. One way that the uprising in St. Domingue differed from other revolts is because almost all the mulatto's - people born half slave/ half free French men, were treated as second class citizens. In 1789 the declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen was passed which freed mulatto's but did not give any more rights to the slaves. I do not understand how this was able to happen, the freed mulatto's were all children of slaves and they let their parents stay under brutality of the slave owners....this saddens me.
On August 29, 1793 slavery was ended in St. Domingue. On February 4th, 1794 French became the first country to free all slaves in their capital. This was one of the biggest and most overlooked radical acts of the French revolution.
This left England in an interesting position. They were sending their royal army to places such as St. Domingue, were the slaves have caused much damage in a revolt. Even George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson, both slave holders, sent money and help to the Whites fighting their slaves.
The main Slave captain was Toussaint L' Ouverture and he led an enraged slave forces. Toussaint trained his troops and hired his officers shrewdly (Pg. 270). Toussaint eventually forced British forces out of St. Domingue but the British new this upheaval would stir up the black community everywhere.