Haiti was the richest colony in the world. A slave labor force was the vast majority of the colony's population. About 40,000 divided plantation owners, merchants, and lawyers were poor whites. A third social group consisted of mixed-race background. The French Revolution lit several fuses and set in motion a spiral of violence. Some of the principles of the revolution meant different things to different people such as the rich white landowners suggested greater autonomy for the colony and few economic restrictions on trade, but resented the demands of the poor white people who just wanted equality of citizenship for all whites. Both rich and white groups opposed to the insistence of free people of color that the "rights of man" meant equal treatment for all free people regardless of race. According to the slaves, the French Revolution was a personal freedom that challenged the entire slave labor system. In 1791, rumors were spread that the French king had declared and end to slavery. This caused the slaves to burn plantations and kill hundreds of whites and mixed-races as well.
Haiti's independence defined all Haitian citizens as black and legally equal regardless of color or class. Economically, the country's plantation system oriented towards the export of sugar and coffee,had been destroyed. Both private and state lands were redistributed among former slaves and free blacks and Haiti became a nation of small scale farmers.
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