This podcast is the second in the slavery series developed for the AQA GCSE history syllabus. It comes with a script and full bibliography providing extra resources to teachers and learners alike.

This podcast is the second in the slavery series developed for the AQA GCSE history syllabus. It comes with a script and full bibliography providing extra resources to teachers and learners alike.

Last week, we described the capture of slaves in Africa, their transportation to the coast and their long, dangerous middle passage voyage, forced to live in horrendous conditions, packed below deck in filthy ships surrounded by sweat, vomit, urine and excrement that painted the decks where the slaves lay.

Many didn't survive, but for those who did their revival in the Caribbean or the Americas marked the beginning of a lifetime of back breaking work, ill treatment, sexual abuse and racial hatred. But surely they didn't all simply accept their lot. It can't have been that easy for the slavers or plantation owners. According to one historian, they strongly resisted slavery. Most had been free in Africa, and their experience of the middle passage drove them to fight.

Distance was commonplace from small everyday acts of defiance to outright uprisings and rebellions, though these were cruelly and ferociously put down by the plantation owners in an attempt to ward off any future acts of resistance.

OK. So today we're going to talk about the most famous and successful of those revolts, the Haitian Revolution. This was a struggle over slavery and racism, which lasted for more than a decade, which historians have called the single most important event in the history of the hemisphere for free people of colour. We will look at its effect on slavery in general, but we'll focus much more on what it meant for Britain.

Thanks to cross crops like coffee and sugar, the colony became a huge economic success for France. Known as the Pearl of the Caribbean, it produced more sugar than Jamaica, Brazil and Cuba combined. But this success depended on the exploitation of hundreds and thousands of slaves. And, as DuBar points out, the colonies profitability was directly linked to its brutality.

Moving forward, almost exactly a century and we find France in the middle of its own revolution, and its ideas about freedom and equality spread to Saint Domingue.

Within a year, they controlled 1/3 of the island.

And sent troops.

In the new world.

This is a genuinely important event. In fact, according to researchers at the John Carter Brown Library, the Haitian Revolution was one of the great episodes of human history. Although often overshadowed by the American and French Revolution, it that ever changed the history of the world.

Let's look at what these changes were and how their impact was felt throughout the transatlantic slave system. That will think particularly about how they affected Britain.

Well, the initial response among the white populations was panic. Saint Domingue has manipulated itself. Should this be the case, other islands will follow, they warned, plantation owners worried that their slaves would see themselves as linked and interlinked with the Haitian revolutionaries, and would try to replicate their violence in their own plantations.

And they were right. Because as news of the events in Haiti spread, one in London newspaper reported murders and massacres without number.

While it was met with fear and outrage by plantation owners and slavers for the unfree, it provided hope and inspiration.

According to one historian, the enslaved across the Americas were aware of the outcome and saw it as an inspiration to rebel against slavery. In fact, many rebellions and conspiracies were all directly inspired by the revolution in Haiti.

Although Levitch had died before Haitian independence was achieved, his story became legend. A slave had shown that he could defeat white troops and outwit white politicians for the enslaved, the lessons they learned was that they not only had the right to govern themselves, but that victory was possible.

But what about for Britain? As Dubois says, the success of the revolutionaries shook up the system of colonial governance, weakening its power. It sparked revolts in several of Britain's Caribbean possessions, including Barbados, Demerara and Jamaica, encouraged by rumours of freedom and promises made by supporters of the abolition movement. Nonetheless, these struggles for freedom and independence are ultimately unsuccessful, did lead to a decade of violence, uprising and death.

So by the early 19th century, the colonial system itself was unsettled by these revolts and uprisings, leading some to believe that the empires in the West Indies were coming to a close, one historian suggesting that the very idea of overseas empire seemed to be in retreat.

Ultimately, transatlantic slavery was always about money and events in Haiti called into question the economics at the very heart of the plantation system, particularly in the Caribbean.

As Hal puts it, thanks to the success of the revolution, it was increasingly doubtful whether the transportation and exploitation of African slave labour was economically rational.

Jamaican slave imports plummeted under the impulse of panic, buying the price of slaves was artificially pushed to new peaks. Britain, faced with pressure from abolitionists and threats of revolution in its colonies, was forced to consider the profitability of the islands.

And began to shift its emphasis further, E focusing on the Indian and Asian possessions and moving to an indentured labour system, which we'll cover in a future episode.

Gradual progress is made, but, as Oldfield points out, the tide really began to turn in the abolitionist favour as events in the Caribbean, particularly the slandering slave uprising, convinced many MP's that it might be worth sacrificing the slave trade if it meant preserving Britain's slave colonies.

True. But while the Haitian Revolution played a significant role in Britain's abolition of slavery, some historians have argued that because abolitionist movements were linked with radicalism and revolution, they stigmatised anti slavery, putting the whole movement back.

Haiti soon became a refuge not only for people of African descent, but also for Indigenous Americans escaping discrimination and warfare at home. However, Haiti's free men and women, scarred by the century of slavery and a decade of warfare, still had some serious problems. The economy was a shambles and most slaves couldn't bring themselves to return to the plantation.

To make matters worse, as punishment for daring to revolt, Haiti was ostracised by most governments who refused to recognise it as a sovereign nation. Freedom was under assault from the moment it arrived.

As we've seen, the success of the Haitian Revolution had a huge knock on effect in Britain. It triggered slave revolts in its colonies, significantly helped the abolition movement at home and elsewhere. It moved Britain's focus eastwards, and it started a move towards indentured labour systems.

It opened up important possibilities institutionalising the ideas of rights and sovereignty that provided the foundation for ongoing struggles against slavery and racial inequality.

Nonetheless, despite these successes, slavery would remain a pillar of the Atlantic economy and society throughout much of the 19th century.

Thank you for listening. We hope you've enjoyed this week's podcast. Next week we'll be discussing evolution and the end of the transatlantic slave system. Goodbye.