No Haitian Revolution

[MerryPrankster]

In Chat, Incognito, Marcus Lucinius Crassus, and I have been having a debate about the Haitian Revolution. Incognito, who is very skeptical of such things, said that the revolution was a failure as it resulted in Haiti being the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere while other Caribbean islands have gone on to do better.

So...

What if the Haitian Revolution never happened? The Wikipedia article indicates that the spark was a petition for franchise by free blacks in the colony that was denied by the governor that led to a free black uprising. Had the petition not been made or the governor been more accommodating, the faction fights between the rich whites, the poor whites, and the free blacks that triggered the slave rebellion might not have happened.

Having Haiti going the way of Jamaica and other places where slavery ended peacefully seems far too facile, as "Santo Domingo" (as people called it) was an ever-present fear in the minds of slavers even on the North American mainland. Although I have no citations at the moment, if slavery seemed more safe and stable, it might take longer to end. Furthermore, there's stuff in them meantime, like the Napoleonic Wars.

 

[Tripwire]

In Chat, Incognito, Marcus Lucinius Crassus, and I have been having a debate about the Haitian Revolution. Incognito, who is very skeptical of such things, said that the revolution was a failure as it resulted in Haiti being the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere while other Caribbean islands have gone on to do better.

So...

What if the Haitian Revolution never happened? The Wikipedia article indicates that the spark was a petition for franchise by free blacks in the colony that was denied by the governor that led to a free black uprising. Had the petition not been made or the governor been more accommodating, the faction fights between the rich whites, the poor whites, and the free blacks that triggered the slave rebellion might not have happened.

Having Haiti going the way of Jamaica and other places where slavery ended peacefully seems far too facile, as "Santo Domingo" (as people called it) was an ever-present fear in the minds of slavers even on the North American mainland. Although I have no citations at the moment, if slavery seemed more safe and stable, it might take longer to end. Furthermore, there's stuff in them meantime, like the Napoleonic Wars.

Similar results as OTL, only shoved back decades later. The profitability of slave labor on Caribbean islands will overpower abolitionist sentiment for decades without the lesson of a massive slave rebellion. Slave rebellions caused Europeans both in the colonies and back home to realize slavery was unnatural and fragile. Without the Haitian revolution, there's likely to be a more complacent attitude towards slavery, and it will likely last for decades longer throughout the Caribbean, before it finally gives way to the abolitionism in the home countries. It'll probably have butterfly effects all the way to the American South.