The goal of the slave insurgents during this first phase of the Haitian Revolution was not to break away from France. Indeed, at the time it was slave owners, not slaves, who clamored most for autonomy and even for independence. And along the way the slave rebels became the allies of imperial power and helped preserve the colony against France’s enemies, gaining freedom and citizenship in the process.

Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ …, loc. 22