Daniel Ramdath
American History 1
Professor Stern
April 23rd, 2026
Insight into the Haitian Revolution
The collection of sources titled, “Pennsylvania Newspapers React to Refugees from Haitian Revolution offers digital museum visitors insight into a very important revolution in Western, American history. The collection compiles four sources, all published via The Pennsylvania Gazette, which show how newspapers covered the Haitian Revolution and how they described racial tensions, slavery, and politics during what many consider to be the first significant refugee crisis. Specifically for this writing, I will focus on the two of the four newspaper articles compiled in the collection, titled “White Refugees” (17th July 1793) and “Free Blacks and Mulattos Flee” (4th December 1793).
To begin, we must provide historical context of Haitian Revolution. Our textbook describes, in detail, what was transpiring in now Haiti while laying out the context of the Louisiana Purchase and the French Revolution. It says, “The unpredictable Napoleon moved to sell Louisiana because of events in [1]Saint-Dominique. The French colony was in the middle of a slave rebellion led by Toussaint L’Ouverture…Known as the Haitian Revolution, the rebellion lasted from 1791 – 1804, when Haiti gained its independence and became the first independent Black nation. It was the first successful rebellion by enslaved people in history, and – although it occurred on Hiaiti in the Caribbean – the event panicked enslavers in the southern U.S. states, who feared that news of the revolt would spread to America” (Shi 316). The overview for the collection of sources also mentions that, “Thousands of Black and White refugees, some free people and others enslaved, flee to major port cities like Philadelphia to escape the conflict arising from differing groups of enslaved people fighting for freedom, poor white people fighting for economic equality, and European countries trying to control the sugar colony” (Caraballo). These articles shed light into the protocol for foreign affairs and the contradictory views of refuges “during the United States’ first immigration crisis” (Caraballo). [2]
The annotation for the first of the two articles writes, “this newspaper reports sympathetically on the situation of the white refugees fleeing Haiti because of uprising” (Caraballo). This is demonstrated through a stark difference in acceptance for the white refugees versus black refugees in the two articles. The “White Refugees” article writes, “The committee, actuated by motives of pity for the helpless part of the passengers, have, of their own authority, ordered a supply of fresh provisions and vegetables to several of the ships; of which articles they had been totally destitute during the voyage. -This part of their conduct, they trust, will be approved of by their Fellow Citizens”. It continues, “Philadelphia, as well as this town, is a refuge for distressed allies; the same enthusiastical generosity is there displayed to soother the misfortunes of the impoverished inhabitants of a lavished island” (The Pennsylvania Gazette). Just in this small section of the larger newspaper writing, the sympathetic feelings toward white refugees can be seen by words like “pity” and the actions of immediately providing fresh clothes and food for them. Compare this to the brief “Free Blacks and [3]Mulattos Flee” article which states “The Governor of South Carolina has issued a proclamation, requiring and ordering all free negroes and people of color, who have arrived there from St. Domingo [Haiti], or who have arrived within twelve months from any other place, to depart the state in ten days from the date thereof, many characters amongst them being deemed dangerous to the welfare and peace of that state” (The Pennsylvania Gazette). The contradiction is seen in terminology, once again, to describe Black refugees. Having both been published in 1793, it is very likely that The Pennsylvania Gazette was writing this to reinforce the notions of racial societal structure. This is supported by the annotation of the “Free Blacks and Mulattos Flee” article, which says, “Like the white settlers, both groups therefore had reason to flee. But, as this source relates, states such as South Carolina feared the consequences of their influence on the state’s own slave population” (Caraballo).
This idea is also supported by exterior research, in particular, Robert Swanson of the University of Missouri History Department, which, later on in his research article, says, “Any disposition to violence, in Webster’s mind, was a direct result of the oppression of slavery as the enslaved attempted to ‘recover their liberty and avenge their wrongs.’ Troubled by the violence, in Webster’s focused on the lessons to be learned from St. Domingue. Webster argued forcefully that the uprising in St. Domingue served as a warning to American slaveholders and the nation at large, stating that ending slavery was the only option to prevent the United States from hosting the next violent uprising” (Swanson 176).
Swanson’s writing and the annotation of the second article are tied together when the ideas from “Racial Capitalism” are mentioned. In this section of our text, it states, “In the south, a cotton empire developed where Northern financiers, shippers, and merchants provided an industrial and financial infrastructure in which large-scale cotton production could thrive…Slavery was a profit-making system built upon forced labor; and it was a form of racial capitalism that created vast inequalities in income, wealth, power, and status. These disparities were so great that the monetary value of enslaved people exceeded the total wealth that the entire nation generated from railroads and factories” (Shi).
Writing by Thomas Mareite further expands upon Swanson’s writing further, providing insight into how the movement of refugees from Saint Dominique reshaped political and colonial dynamics across the Atlantic, particularly in islands like the Spanish colony of Cuba. He says, “Cuban elites reacted to news of the revolutions unfolding in Saint-Dominique with a mix of fear and greed, seeking to contain the spread of talk of abolition, racial equality, and independence while reaping new profits. With civil unrest and slave revolts across the neighboring island, Cuban planters foresaw an unprecedented opportunity to compete-or even replace-the French colony as the leading colony for sugar and coffee…Saint-Dominigue refugees helped make Cuba one of the epicenters of the so-called Second Slavery, dotting Havana’s hinterland with plantations from the mid-1790s on” (Mareite). Mareite’s words demonstrate how the arrival of refugees continued to spread message of the ending of slavery and social commentary on migration and imperialism.
Lastly, in his writing “Saint-Dominguan Refugees of African Descent and the Forging of Ethnic Identity in Early National Philadelphia”, John Davies provides information that contrast the biased notions of “Free Blacks and Mulattoes flee” that was published in The Pennsylvania Gazette. He describes the lives of Black refugees in Philadelphia and where they found themselves amongst Black Philadelphians and Philadelphians generally. He writes, “Some [Black refugees from Saint-Dominigue] who remained in Philadelphia allied themselves with the Philadelphia’s black elite and joined the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, became officers in black fraternal lodges, attended schools run by Protestant clergymen, or associated with the leading figures of this community. Some took a middle course and married black Philadelphians and established a social and economic presence in the larger community-as a result of economic opportunities and residential proximity-while they retained cultural connections such as religion” (Davies). This account of the experiences of Haitian refugees furthers our understanding the Gazette newspaper, showing that people who were feared and labeled as threats or danger were just people who were trying to create livelihoods under decades of difficult circumstances.
Ultimately, these sources reveal how Americans processed change through revolution in the eyes of journalism. The newspapers in The Pennsylvania Gazette helped form public opinion on many ideas such as the freedom of white and black refugees, and what that meant for society in the North and South at large. For viewers of this digital museum piece, know that conversation and debate on refugees, race, and media influence are nothing new. Newspapers and journalism are skewed far beyond neutral lenses and continue to shape how people understand what is occurring within their own home.
Bibliography
Britannica.com. “Haitian Revolution,” 2026. https://cdn.britannica.com/41/196241-159-8E5C1AE4/Haitians-French-troops-engraving-revolution-Haitian-Hebert-1803.jpg.
Caraballo, Michael. “Source Collection: Pennsylvania Newspapers React to Refugees from Haitian Revolution | World History Commons.” Worldhistorycommons.org, 2016. https://worldhistorycommons.org/source-collection-pennsylvania-newspapers-react-refugees-haitian-revolution.
David Emory Shi, and George Brown Tindall. America: A Narrative History. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2019.
John Davies. “Saint-Dominguan Refugees of African Descent and the Forging of Ethnic Identity in Early National Philadelphia.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 134, no. 2 (2010): 109. https://doi.org/10.5215/pennmaghistbio.134.2.109.
Mareite, Thomas. “‘Sterile in Spanish Hands.’” French Historical Studies 48, no. 1 (February 1, 2025): 37–64. https://doi.org/10.1215/00161071-11503584.
Swanson, Robert. “‘The Fires of Liberty’: American Abolitionist Perspectives on the Haitian Revolution, 1791–1806.” American Nineteenth Century History, June 14, 2024, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/14664658.2024.2361532.
Worldhistorycommons.org. “The Pennsylvania Gazette: Free Blacks and Mulattos Flee (4 December 1793) | World History Commons,” 2026. https://worldhistorycommons.org/pennsylvania-gazette-free-blacks-and-mulattos-flee-4-december-1793.
Worldhistorycommons.org. “The Pennsylvania Gazette: White Refugees (17 July 1793) | World History Commons,” 2026. https://worldhistorycommons.org/pennsylvania-gazette-white-refugees-17-july-1793.
[1] Original name for what’s now known as Haiti
[2] Illustration showing fighting between Haitian and French soldiers during the Haitian revolution
[3] Offensive term used to describe mixed-raced individuals with one Black Parent and one White Parent