The effects of the French Revolution went beyond that nation’s borders. Within France new rights were being granted to previously neglected groups, among them the middle class, women, and Jews. Soon, France found one of its colonies seeking the same freedoms. Through the staunch fighting of its black soldiers and the leadership of Toussaint L’Ouverture, the colony of Saint- Domingue became Haiti, the first black republic, in 1804. Ironically, while Haiti remained independent from that point on, France was not so lucky—by 1804, the nation’s first attempt at a republican government had failed and the nation was under the rule of self-proclaimed emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.

In 1789 Saint-Domingue was the largest of the French West Indian colonies. Five hundred thousand slaves, transported from Africa, worked on coffee, cotton, and sugar plantations. Since 1687 the slaves had lived under...