George Bassiou: Early leader of the Haitan Revolution

In 1998, the UN’s body for education, science and culture, UNESCO, instituted the 23rd of August as International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. This day was picked as it was the day that enslaved Africans decided to liberate themselves on what was one of the most fierce enslavement conditions on the planet.

Today is the the 220th Anniversary of the enslaved African revolt on the French colony of Saint Domingue which started the Haitian Revolution. Led by Toussaint L’Ouverture in 1804 Haiti was declared an independent free Black republic, the first of its kind in the Western hemisphere, in doing so they had to defeat not only their French colonial masters but also the Spanish army, and the British army. It was the only revolt against enslavement that was victorious.

The victory shook the Colonial powers and encouraged the Abolition movement, it is unlikely the Trans-atlantic slave trade would have ended any earlier without it. 3 years after the birth of Haiti, Britain passed a law to make enslavement illegal, but the trade continued for another 26 years. The formerly enslaved Africans built this fortress in their first years of freedom.

The definitive book on the Haitian Revolution is “The Black Jacobins” by C.L.R. James, a African-Trinidadian and Trotskyist who lived and died in Brixton, South London.

Thanks to Akala @AkalaMusic for the additional info on this post!