Slave Revolution in the Caribbean 1789-1804
The slave revolution in the Caribbean was the most influential slave rebellion in world history. No one before had ever taken on the difficult steps in order to fight for their freedom. The revolution was so powerful that it affected not only the French, but also other powerful nations throughout the Atlantic world. This radical revolution changed the way countries treated their people and ran their government. The responses to the slave revolution in Documents 18 and 19 were similar because they both stressed the importance of freedom and liberty for all races and believed in equality for all men because Gouges and Marat truly understood what a republic represented.
In document 18, written by Olympe de Gouges, she illustrates a very clear picture of how all men should be treated. Olympe, a white female, was a political activist who brought in large crowds by talking about her feministic and abolitionist views. She expressed her views through a play that was shut down by the French government because it exposed the truth about what the French government really stood for, monarchy. Another influential man, Jean-Paul Marat, was a radical journalist and politician during the French Revolution who stressed similar ideas like Gouges. Marat, a white, Swiss born man, wrote mostly about his problems with the French royal government and how they controlled the Saint-Domingue people. Both of these influential political figures wrote about the importance of nature’s good principals. Olympe explains that, “ Men are not born to be in chains, yet you prove that they are necessary. If you are stronger, why resort to all the fierceness of your fiery countries?”(Dubois 109) She stresses the importance equality and freedom by denouncing slavery. The idea of men being chained and owned by other men is not only morally wrong, but also inhumane. The ones who should be tortured and punished are not the slaves, but should be the...