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262 PART 3 REVOLUTION AND REPUBLICAN CULTURE, 1754%u20131800make %u201cfull and complete compensation%u201d to British merchants for pre%u2013Revolutionary War debts owed by American citizens. In return, the agreement allowed Americans to submit claims for illegal seizures and required the British to remove their troops and Indian Agents from the Northwest Territory. Despite Republican charges that Jay%u2019s Treaty was too conciliatory, the Senate ratified it in 1795, but only by the two-thirds majority required by the Constitution. The vote was 20 to 10, with opposition coming from southern Jeffersonians. As long as the Federalists were in power, the United States would have a pro-British foreign policy.The Haitian Revolution The French Revolution inspired a revolution closer to home that would also impact the United States. The wealthy French plantation colony of Saint-Domingue in the West Indies was deeply divided: a small class of elite planters stood atop the population of 40,000 free whites and dominated the island%u2019s half million slaves. In between, some 28,000 gens de couleur%u2014free men of color%u2014were excluded from most professions, forbidden from taking the names of their white relatives, and prevented from dressing like whites. The French Revolution intensified conflict between planters and free Blacks, giving way to a massive uprising of enslaved people in 1791 that aimed to abolish slavery. The uprising touched off years of civil war, along with Spanish and British invasions. In 1798, Black men in arms led by Toussaint L%u2019Ouverture%u2014himself a formerly enslaved plantation worker %u2014 seized control of the country. After five more years of fighting, in 1803, Saint-Domingue became the independent nation of Haiti: the first Black republic in the Atlantic world.The Haitian Revolution profoundly impacted the United States. In 1793, thousands of refugees %u2014 planters, enslaved people, and free Blacks alike %u2014 fled the island and traveled to Charleston, Norfolk, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, while newspapers detailed the bloodshed and loss of property in the unfolding war. Many slaveholders panicked, fearful that the %u201ccontagion%u201d of Black liberation would undermine their own slave regimes. U.S. policy toward the rebellion presented a knotty problem. U.S. political leaders had difficulty deciding how to regard Saint-Domingue because the war stirred conflicting values. The first instinct of the Washington administration was to supply aid to the island%u2019s white population. Adams %u2014 strongly antislavery and no friend of France %u2014 changed course, aiding the rebels and strengthening commercial ties. Jefferson, though sympathetic to moral arguments against slavery, was himself a southern slaveholder; he was, moreover, an ardent supporter of France. When he became president, he cut off aid to the rebels, imposed a trade embargo, and refused to recognize an independent Haiti, a decision that was not reversed until the administration of Abraham Lincoln in 1862. For many Americans, an independent nation of liberated Black citizens was a horrifying paradox, a perversion of the republican ideal (see %u201cAP%u00ae America in the World,%u201d p. 263).The Rise of Political PartiesThe appearance of Federalists and Republicans marked a new stage in American politics%u2014what historians call the First Party System. Colonial legislatures had factions based on family, ethnicity, or region, but they did not have organized political parties. Nor did the new state and national constitutions make any provision for political societies. Indeed, most Americans believed that Jay%u2019s TreatyA 1795 treaty between the United States and Britain, negotiated by John Jay. The treaty accepted Britain%u2019s right to stop neutral ships and required the U.S. government to provide restitution for the pre%u2013Revolutionary War debts of British merchants. In return, it allowed Americans to submit claims for illegal seizures and required the British to remove their troops and Indian Agents from the Northwest Territory.Haitian RevolutionAn uprising against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue (1791%u20131804) involving gens de couleur and self-liberating enslaved people from the island and armies from three European countries. In 1804, Saint-Domingue became the independent Black republic of Haiti, in which formerly enslaved people were citizens.Toussaint L%u2019Ouverture Proclaims the Constitution of the Republic of Haiti The Haitian Revolution ended slavery in the plantation colony of Saint-Domingue and instituted racial equality. After leading the Black army that ousted French planters and British invaders, Toussaint formed Haiti%u2019s first constitutional government in 1801. A year later, when French troops invaded the island, he negotiated a treaty that halted Haitian resistance in exchange for a pledge that France would not reinstate slavery. Subsequently, the French seized Toussaint and imprisoned him in France, where he died in 1803. His countrymen continued fighting and won their independence in 1804. This French lithograph depicts Toussaint as a lawgiver, delivering the people of Haiti their first Constitution. World History Archive/Alamy.%u00a9 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. 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