Editing History of Haiti (section)

===The rising of the slaves (1791–1793)===
[[File:Incendie de la Plaine du Cap. Massacre des Blancs par les esclaves noirs révoltés. France militaire. Martinet et Masson.jpg|thumb|"Burning of the Plaine du Cap – Massacre of whites by the blacks". On 22 August 1791, slaves set fire to plantations, torched cities, and massacred the white population.]]

A [[Haitian Vodou|vodou]] ceremony at [[Bois Caïman]] (Alligator Woods) near Cap-Français on 14 August 1791, presided over by a [[houngan]] (Vodou priest) named [[Dutty Boukman]], is traditionally considered to mark the beginning of the [[Haitian Revolution]]. Following this ceremony, slaves in the northern region of the colony staged a revolt, and although Boukman was captured and executed, the rebellion continued to spread rapidly throughout the entire colony. Beginning in September<!--, 1791-->, some thirteen thousand slaves and rebels in the south, led by [[Romaine-la-Prophétesse]], freed slaves and took supplies from and burned plantations, ultimately occupying the area's two major cities, [[Léogâne]] and [[Jacmel]].<ref name="Rey 2017 a">Terry Rey, ''The Priest and the Prophetess: Abbé Ouvière, Romaine Rivière, and the Revolutionary Atlantic World'' (2017), pp. 28, 32–35, 48–49, 52</ref><ref>Matthias Middell, Megan Maruschke, The French Revolution as a Moment of Respatialization (2019), p. 71.</ref><ref name="Dun 2016 65">James Alexander Dun, ''Dangerous Neighbors: Making the Haitian Revolution'' (2016), p. 65</ref><ref>David F. Marley, ''Wars of the Americas: A Chronology of Armed Conflict'' (2008), p. 534</ref>

In 1792, [[Léger-Félicité Sonthonax]] and two other national commissioners were sent to the colony by the French Legislative Assembly as part of a Revolutionary Commission. Sonthonax's main goal was to maintain French control of Saint-Domingue, stabilize the colony, and enforce the social equality recently granted to free people of color by the National Convention of France. In March 1792, a coalition of whites and conservative free blacks and forces led by another of the national commissioners, Edmond de Saint-Léger, put down Romaine-la-Prophétesse's revolt<ref name="Dun 2016 65"/><ref name="Rey 2017 b">Rey (2017), pp. 137, 157–59.</ref><ref name=" Popkin 2011 51">Jeremy D. Popkin, ''A Concise History of the Haitian Revolution'' (2011), p. 51</ref> after [[André Rigaud]], who led free black confederate forces based near Port-au-Prince, declined to ally with it.<ref name="Rey 2017 c">Rey (2017), p. 103.</ref>