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I knew that the French army was defeated in the Haitian Revolution but I had no idea how badly. Wow. 
As I dig into this period of history I keep thinking about how I was never taught the Louisiana Purchase was a direct result of the Haitian revolution. Like Napoleon gave up the entire Louisiana territory, a quarter of the current US, bc his army was beaten so badly in Haiti.
It feels like another version of american history I was taught that lifts up the founding fathers (“Jefferson & his envoy were brilliant negotiators”) at the expense of a fuller truth (“Napoleon got beaten so badly by enslaved Haitians he basically gave the LA terriroty away”).
Time and time again, the way we’re taught American history obscures or completely ignores the contributions that black people (here & elsewhere) have made in shifting the trajectory of this country.
Anyway, this is from an excellent book by Daniel Rasmussen. It’s more centrally focused on the 1811 slave revolt in Louisiana but does a great job of putting it in conversation with the uprising in Haiti. Beautifully written as well.
