While it's possible to imagine a history where the French free the slaves and somehow still convince them to work on the sugar plantations, resulting in a better outcome for everyone, reaching such a set up would have been a Herculean task. It's hard to view independence as a bad outcome for the slaves without such a scenario.
>Should they have just fought the French again?
Without the distraction of the French Revolution, I can't picture France losing that war. From the article, the US lost ~15 men in the 1915 war to ostensibly conquer the country, throughout most of the 19th century France likely could have won with similar ease. That's surely what the Haitians believed, as they only agreed to the indemnity due to gunboat diplomacy.
> Is there a counterfactual that suggests what could have been done differently?
The best counterfactual is the US, where the French acknowledged and supported us allowing a new nation to be built. Nobody gave Haiti support, save a couple thousand Polish soldiers.
At most, maybe without the 1804 massacre of the French the Haitians would have gotten somewhat better treatment. But as they were already given such poor treatment, I doubt it'd have vastly improved things.
>Should they have just fought the French again?
Without the distraction of the French Revolution, I can't picture France losing that war. From the article, the US lost ~15 men in the 1915 war to ostensibly conquer the country, throughout most of the 19th century France likely could have won with similar ease. That's surely what the Haitians believed, as they only agreed to the indemnity due to gunboat diplomacy.
> Is there a counterfactual that suggests what could have been done differently?
The best counterfactual is the US, where the French acknowledged and supported us allowing a new nation to be built. Nobody gave Haiti support, save a couple thousand Polish soldiers.
At most, maybe without the 1804 massacre of the French the Haitians would have gotten somewhat better treatment. But as they were already given such poor treatment, I doubt it'd have vastly improved things.