The biggest slave revolt in history began in 1791. Enslaved Africans rebelled on French sugarcane plantations in Saint Domingue. Their struggle for freedom from slavery and France took 13 years.
Almost half a million enslaved persons fought their French owners. In 1804, Saint Domingue became the independent nation of Haiti. Haiti is Arawak for “higher place.” Along with the U.S. and France, Haitians built one of the first democratic republics. Haiti was the first Caribbean nation to win independence. Today, 15 other countries are independent, too. But even free nations have seen interference. Sometimes a country, usually more powerful, gets into another country’s business. That’s interference. Since the late 1800s, the U.S. has interfered in Caribbean nations several times.
