thecrashcourse:

Haitian Revolutions: Crash Course World History #30

Ideas like liberty, freedom, and self-determination were hot stuff in the late 18th century, as evidenced by our recent revolutionary videos. Although freedom was breaking out all over, many of the societies that were touting these ideas relied on slave labor. Few places in the world relied so heavily on slave labor as Saint-Domingue, France’s most profitable colony. Slaves made up nearly 90% of Saint-Domingue’s population, and in 1789 they couldn’t help but hear about the revolution underway in France. All the talk of liberty, equality, and fraternity sounds pretty good to a person in bondage, and so the slaves rebelled. This led to not one but two revolutions, and ended up with France, the rebels, Britain, and Spain all fighting in the territory. Spoiler alert: the slaves won. So how did the slaves of what would become Haiti throw off the yoke of one of the world’s great empires? John Green tells how they did it, and what it has meant in Haiti and in the rest of the world.

This week’s crash course was really fun to make, because I learned a lot. Of course my pronunciation still sucks.

299 Notes/ Hide

  1. mywildyoungheart reblogged this from kreuking
  2. kreuking reblogged this from thecrashcourse and added:
    This is my favorite episode of Crash Course. Everyone following me should watch it. EVERYONE.
  3. dreamrena reblogged this from le-bontombe
  4. quiz-bowl reblogged this from thecrashcourse
  5. tentwistedtongues reblogged this from theracehorse
  6. prussiahasinvaded reblogged this from thegermansmakegoodstuff
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  8. jefreecolpetzer-jefree6 reblogged this from skeptv
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  10. the-mad-doctor-gradamit reblogged this from oldmanyellsatcloud
  11. oldmanyellsatcloud reblogged this from skeptv and added:
    You know you’re in a bleak mood when a short documentary on Haiti is actually uplifting by contrast.
  12. thegermansmakegoodstuff reblogged this from skeptv and added:
    A few facts not mentioned here: France returned 20 years after the revolution and encircled Haiti’s coastline, demanding...
  13. mikeandtinaforever reblogged this from skeptv
  14. skeptv reblogged this from thecrashcourse and added:
    Crash Course World History #30 - Haitian Revolutions via
  15. the-dark-lord-hussie reblogged this from fishingboatproceeds
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  20. maevegreen reblogged this from thecrashcourse and added:
    is awesome, if very ‘progressively’ put,...will be super useful when we begin our
  21. frenchthellamaitsharrypotter reblogged this from fishingboatproceeds and added:
    THIS VIDEO MAKES ME SO HAPPY. everyone seems to ignore haiti. Before the earthquake in 2010, barely anyone knew where...