Haitian independence
After a 13-year slave revolt against French colonial rule, Jean-Jacques Dessalines declared Haiti independent. The first successful slave revolution in modern history, and the first Black republic. France later demanded 150 million francs in reparations for 'lost property', a debt Haiti paid off over 122 years.
Haiti extended the logic of 'consent of the governed' to people who were legally considered property in most of the Americas. The United States refused to recognize Haiti until 1862. The reparations France extracted crippled Haitian finances for over a century.
03 · Consent of the Governed
Locke, Rousseau, and the revolutions they inspired reframed the question entirely. Legitimacy no longer flowed from God to king. It flowed from the governed to the government. It was a radical idea in 1776. It's now so assumed that most people can't name its source.
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