From 1697 to 1804, French colonialism and enslaved labor made Saint-Domingue (modern-day Haiti) the most profitable colony in the Americas.

Toussaint L'Ouverture, the leader of the Saint Domingue rebellion, abandoned his Spanish allies, joined the forces of the French Republic as a brigadier general, and turned his troops against Spain.

But the revolutionaries in Saint Domingue, led by Toussaint L'Ouverture, were not trying to pull down the power of their absentee masters, but join those masters on an equal footing in the ...