Haiti, now the poorest Caribbean nation, was once the richest. The Haitian Revolution was taken over by slaves, while their educated leader, Toussaint, died in a prison at the behest of other, French Revolutionaries and Napoleon. The slave revolution is said to have begun in a forest with a woman slave sacrificing a pig to a Haitian god, described as “so good…he orders revenge” (ominous beginning). By the middle of September, 1791, the slaves had destroyed 1,500 coffee and sugar plantations and 80,000 slaves were in open rebellion. (Daut, Marlene, History Today)
Some of the American slaves were educated, or even Christianized, such as the leaders of the Underground Railway. They did not destroy what they had worked to build, and were freed by President Lincoln, though some had already been freed by their masters.
Many of our own African-Americans took no part in the violent protests we have witnessed, and like the educated members of the Cabinet and military, have expressed their disapproval of the turn to violence.
Civilization 