Compare and Contrast Essay: The Haitian Revolution and French Revolution

The French Revolution and the Haitian Revolution were major uprisings that occurred in the late 1700s to early 1800s. The French revolution transpired in 1789 after the American revolution. The French peasants or 3rd estate were fed up with the severe economic discrimination and lack of civic duty from the higher estates. With the king being very dismissive about assisting the 3rd estate and the queen contributing to the economic downfall of the country the peasants decided enough was enough and fought back. The Haitian Revolution occurred in 1791 and concluded in 1804. It was between the black slaves of Haiti and the colonial government of France. The slaves were tired of endlessly working on the plantations with no pay despite their working turning a massive profit. This caused them to finally fight back. While the French and Haitian revolutions were both caused by oppression from the French government, they differed in the way the government was handled after the revolution and the specific reasons for wanting to revolt.

The French and Haitian revolutions were both caused by oppression from the French government. With the French revolution, the reason they wanted to revolt against the government was because of the systemic economic discrimination that was the Estate system. This is evident with the amount of taxes paid by the 3rd estate. The 3rd estate paid 50% of the taxes while the higher estates paid less than 2% (Causes of French Revolution Document 3). The chart clearly demonstrates the reason the peasants would want to revolt against the government and proves that this was oppression from the government. The Haitian revolution was also caused by oppression from the French government. During the conflict a former slave Toussaint L’ Overture wanted the Haitian slaves to fight against the rule of the colonial French government due to the cruel treatment of the slaves even though they provided good money for them (Haitian Revolution reading doc). This proves that the Haitian revolution was also about rising up to the oppression from the French government. Due to these reasons, both the French and Haitian revolutions were caused by the rising oppression from the French government.

However, after the French Revolution, most people of France wanted to restructure the already existing government while the Haitians wanted to abolish the colonial government. Though some people wanted the monarchy completely gone there was a vocal majority that believed that it would be reformed. Furthermore this is evident with people saying, “That the king be forced to reform the abuses and tyranny [of his rule] …. That's every tax…. Be granted only for a limited time [and periodically re-evaluated] …. That the taille [a tax on land] be borne equally by all classes…. The meetings of the Estates-General…. Shall be scheduled for definite times…. In order to assure the third estate, the influence it deserves because of its numbers… its votes in the assembly should be taken by the head (a vote for each person in the 3rd estate, instead of 1 vote for the entire estate) …” (doc 6, COFR). The fact that the people believed that the king could reform if only he changed his ways is proof that they were initially willing to have a restructured monarchy and did not want to completely abolish it. However, that was not the case in Haiti. After the conflict with the French was over the Haitians wanted nothing to do with France anymore. After the Haitians with the help of the Spanish were able to drive the French out, they had formally declared independence from them. This established Haiti as the first black republic (Documentary of Haiti). Due to this, the conclusion that can be made is that Haitians had no plan to restructure the colonial government and simply wanted the French out of their land. 

On the other hand, while the primary cause of the French Revolution was the economic discrimination being the Estate System, the Haitian revolution was caused by the cruel human slavery. In France, the treatment of the 3rd estate was very poor as, “The poor people seem very poor indeed. The children are terribly ragged. The lack of bread is terrible. Stories arrive every moment from the provinces of riots and disturbances, and calling in the military, to preserve the peace of the market. The price of bread has risen above people’s ability to pay. This causes great misery. I once talked to a poor woman, who complained about the times. She said her husband had but a small plot of land, one cow, and a poor little horse, yet they had to pay a tax of 42 pounds of wheat to one noble and 168 pounds of oats to another. The taxes and laws are crushing the people.” This clearly demonstrated the absolute unfair conditions of the 3rd estate. Being the lowest among the estates they had to give away their food and paid a considerable amount of taxes to the nobles despite the noble’s lack of economic contributions. They wore very ragged clothes and were on the verge of starvation. Nevertheless, the higher ups decided to simply not acknowledge this. The fact that the reason they paid so much taxes was because of their economic class proves their reason for revolting was because of the bias of the Estate System. The Haitian Revolution on the other end of the spectrum was caused by the cruel treatment of the black slaves on the plantations. The slaves, after working over the cruel conditions of coffee and sugar plantations had enough and inspired by the French revolution, decided to call for equality and revolt (Haitian Revolution reading). This clearly demonstrates that the cause of the Haitian Revolution was the unfair treatment of the slaves rather than economic discrimination.

All in all, even though the French and Haitian revolutions were both caused by oppression from the French they differ in their goals afterward and the reasons for fighting. Today many may feel they are in the minority or simply don’t have the influence to make their ideas seem heard. Both these revolutions demonstrate that no matter how outnumbered you are or how radical you’re thinking maybe there is still a possibility for success and that if a group with similar ideas comes together and is willing to fight for their beliefs they can succeed.