On November 18, 1803, a battle of global significance took place on the heights of Vertières in northern Haiti. That day, an army made up of former slaves, farmers, and freed Black soldiers faced off and triumphed against Napoleon Bonaparte’s colonial forces, then considered among the most powerful in the world. This victory, which ended over three centuries of colonial and slave domination in Saint-Domingue, remains glaringly absent from Western history textbooks. Why has Napoleon’s first major military defeat been erased from collective memory? And why is it essential today to restore this battle to its rightful place in world history?
On the eve of the revolution, Saint-Domingue, now Haiti, was the most lucrative colony in the French empire. Nearly 800,000 Africans were exploited on its plantations, producing more than 60% of Europe’s coffee and 40% of its sugar. But in 1791, an unprecedented uprising erupted. Enslaved people took up arms, led by towering figures like Toussaint Louverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Henri Christophe, and Capois-La-Mort. Thus began the Haitian Revolution, the first and only successful slave revolt in modern history.
In 1802, newly in power, Napoleon Bonaparte sought to restore colonial order in Saint-Domingue. He dispatched a massive military expedition led by his brother-in-law, General Charles Leclerc, with a clear objective: to reinstate slavery, which the French Revolution had abolished. But the Haitians, now well-organized and battle-hardened, refused to return to bondage. The war was long, bloody, and marked by betrayal, disease, and massacres. It would reach its climax in November 1803 at Vertières.
On November 18, 1803, under the command of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the Haitian army launched a decisive assault on the last French strongholds at Vertières. At the forefront stood General Capois-La-Mort, a legendary figure. Struck during the charge, his horse collapsed beneath him. Capois got up, sword in hand, and roared: “Forward! Forward!” His bravery was so remarkable that French commander Rochambeau briefly ordered a ceasefire to salute his courage. But the offensive continued. Within hours, French lines were crushed. Napoleon suffered his first major military defeat, a humiliation the Empire would never forget but one historian would quickly conceal. Barely six weeks later, on January 1, 1804, Dessalines declared Haiti’s independence. The country became the first free Black republic in the world and the only nation ever born from a victorious slave revolt. The shockwaves were global. Haiti became a symbol of liberation for the oppressed and a dangerous precedent for colonial slave powers.
Unlike Austerlitz or Marengo, the Battle of Vertières is absent from Napoleon’s glorified military narrative. Why? It is inconvenient. It shatters the myth of European military supremacy and shows that African-descended people were not only capable of freeing themselves but of defeating a global empire.
“Vertières overturned the world order as colonial empires imagined it: the idea of white supremacy was brought to its knees.”
— Dr. Achille Mbembe, Cameroonian philosopher
Vertières is not just a moment in Haitian history. It is a foundational milestone for Africa, the diaspora, and all peoples who fight for freedom. This battle paved the way for the independence movements of the 19th and 20th centuries, from West Africa to South Africa, the Caribbean to Latin America. It reminds us that freedom is never granted; it is fought for.
More than two centuries later, Vertières remains a cry for liberty, a hymn to human dignity, and a glorious truth that no one can erase. It is time to teach it, commemorate it, and elevate it to its rightful status: a universal victory of humanity over oppression.
