Rebellion and Revolution: From Haiti to the Louisiana German Coast (1791-1811)
French colonization and enslavement of Africans prompted widespread resistance beginning in Saint-Domingue prompting the collapse of their holdings in the southern region of North America
By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire
Saturday February 14, 2026
African American History Month Series No. 3
A rebellion among the Africans of Saint-Domingue (Haiti) in the Caribbean beginning in August 1791 would send shockwaves throughout the slaveholding classes throughout the entire Western Hemisphere.
This uprising later evolved into a revolutionary struggle over the next twelve years resulting in the defeat of France, Britain and Spain and the independence of the Republic of Haiti on January 1, 1804.
The Haitian Revolution has been acknowledged as a major turning point in the struggle against slavery and for the liberation of the oppressed. Consequently, the United States and France refused to recognize the people of Haiti as a sovereign body.
African enslavement in the then recently formed U.S. was on the incline. After the invention of the Cotton Gin during the1790s the demand for enslaved African labor accelerated.
Yet, maintaining the Atlantic Slave Trade would prove quite costly to France. After its defeat in Haiti, the French were compelled to relinquish its colonial holdings in the southwest region of what became known as the U.S.
Even as early as the mid-18th century in the aftermath of the so-called French and Indian War (1754-1763), France was defeated as part of the larger Seven Years War which saw battles in Europe as well as North America. France was forced to concede the Louisiana Territory to Spain.
The French and Indian War was in reality a battle between London and Paris over who would control North America. Various Native American nations fought with different sides in the war causing deep divisions among the Indigenous people. These developments weakened the capacity of the Native Americans to unite against the inevitable onslaught of U.S. land seizures, displacement and genocide. In the long run, only the British settlers benefited from the French and Indian War of the mid-18th century.
Nonetheless, many French slave owners and functionaries of the colonial system along with their enslaved Africans relocated to the area now known as the southwest region of the U.S. Although Spain returned the Louisiana Territory to France, it was rapidly sold to the U.S. France was severely damaged by its defeat in Haiti and fell even deeper in debt due to decades of failed military operations against Britain.
The government in Washington under President Thomas Jefferson was interested in acquiring more territory for their particular settler colonial project which envisioned its expansion across the entire area now known as the U.S. Jefferson agreed to pay France $15 million for control of the land which far outstrips what today is the state of Louisiana. The Louisiana Purchase extended from the Gulf of Mexico to as far north as the Dakotas west of the Mississippi River.
The U.S. Treasury did not have $15 million in its possession, so they borrowed the funds from British and other European banks. After 1803, Washington controlled half of the territory which later became the U.S.
The 1811 Uprising Along the German Coast
Many historians believe there is a direct connection between the Haitian Revolution, the collapse of French and Spanish colonialism in North America and the growing discontent among enslaved Africans. The rebellion on the German Coast in Louisiana represented a turning point in the efforts to end slavery as an economic system worldwide.
This area on the Louisiana Coast was characterized by the importation under French colonial interests of German-speaking people from the Rhineland and other areas in Europe during the 1720s. It was reported that in route to the Louisiana Territory the majority of these German settlers died of various infectious diseases.
Once they were settled over the decades many became successful agriculturalists. Their social status was highly connected with the French, Spanish and later U.S. colonialists and land barons. The U.S. government was attempting to exercise its control over the area in the aftermath of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.
According to an entry on a website related to Orleans Territorial history, the revolt began soon after the New Year on January 8, 1811:
“The revolt was carried out by enslaved men and women, house servants and field hands, some born in Louisiana and others recently arrived from Africa and the Caribbean. Bound to the sugar plantations in St. Charles and St. John the Baptist Parishes, these slaves together decided to build an army and fight for their freedom. Led by Charles Deslondes, a slave believed to have arrived in Louisiana from Haiti, the revolt began on January 8 on Manuel Andry’s plantation near present-day LaPlace. Armed with pikes, axes, shovels, and a few rifles, the army of the enslaved began its two-day march in military formation down the east bank of the Mississippi River. Waving flags and beating drums, the rebels burned plantations, crops, and storehouses. As it marched on New Orleans, the army grew as slaves rushed out from the plantations to join the fight. Witnesses estimated that the army had grown to between two hundred and five hundred slaves.” (https://neworleanshistorical.org/items/show/1402)
This represented one of the worst nightmare scenarios for the U.S. and its allies among the settler slave owners and merchants. The government in Washington did not want to see anything remotely resembling the Haitian Revolution on the territory it was incorporating into the U.S. as a nation-state.
Nonetheless, it was inevitable that flight from captivity and rebellion would be a legitimate response to the conditions under which enslaved Africans lived. As the U.S. expanded its policy of “manifest destiny” over North America requiring the acquisition of more enslaved people for labor exploitation, the fear of rebellion widened, resulting in even more draconian laws to tighten the control over Black people.
Consequently, the revolt had to be crushed by the slave owners, local authorities and their allies. Armed whites were mobilized to put down the uprising and capture and execute the leaders.
The same above-mentioned source on the 1811 Rebellion, said of the repression of the uprising:
“Militia was dispatched by the government in New Orleans and by planters in the surrounding parishes to fight the slaves. The army of the enslaved had its last stand in the early morning on January 10 when it was defeated by a militia from across the river. Some slaves were killed in the fighting, and many more were executed after summary investigations. Authorities chopped the heads off the corpses and displayed them on tall spikes in New Orleans and along the Mississippi River as a warning to other slaves. The 1811 Louisiana Slave Revolt was a heroic struggle that came to a tragic ending. At the same time, it is a historical event of undeniable local, national, and global significance.”
There were tremendous resources expended by the colonial authorities under Spain, France and the U.S. to subdue the Louisiana Territory west of the Mississippi River. Despite the seizure of this land and further mobilization of enslaved Africans, there later arose an internal struggle within the U.S. government over the expansion of slavery as an economic as well as political system which would come into deadly conflict with manufacturing interests.
These protracted struggles over the future the U.S. would be manifested through the War of 1812, the military campaign to seize Florida from Spain and more importantly, the destruction and dislocation of the Seminole, Creek, Cherokee, Chickasaw and Choctaw nations in the South along with other Indigenous communities. By 1856 there were armed conflicts in Kansas over the expansion of slavery which prefigured a full-blown civil war five years later.
The rebellion led by Nat Turner in South Hampton County Virginia in 1831 not only provided a rationale for the planters to enact even more repressive laws it also fueled the growth and militancy of the Abolitionist Movement in the U.S. and internationally. Developments between 1856-1861 threatened the continuation of the U.S. as a nation-state.
Official Attacks and Suppression of African American History Will Not Remove Resistance Legacy
It is the legacy of resistance and its documentation that has drawn the ire of the right-wing within the political establishment. In states such as Florida, laws have been passed which essentially outlaw the teaching of the heroic history of the Black Seminole Wars against the U.S. government during the early and mid-19th century. Other important contributions by the African and Indigenous people of Florida remain suppressed within racist educational structures.
Historical events such as the 1811 Revolt on the Louisiana German Coast have drawn considerable scholarly attention in recent years. The technological advancements in digitization of historical documents will enhance the research and writing about the largely hidden stories of resistance to U.S. colonial expansion and enslavement.
As in the 20th century, movements must be created to preserve, interpret and sustain the study of African American history. Concurrently, it is imperative for the nationally oppressed and their allies within progressive and revolutionary tendencies to fight and overthrow racism, capitalism and imperialism in order to transition to a socialist future.
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