The long-oppressed and savage blacks mercilessly killed all the
whites who fell into their hands. Down from the mountains they poured on
every side, their routes marked by blood and devastation. Hills and plains
were swept with fire and sword, atrocities of the most horrible kinds were
committed, and nearly all the residents on the plantations, more than two
thousand in number, were brutally slaughtered, while a thousand sugar and
coffee estates were swept by fire.
In the first revolution the mulattoes aided the whites of the cities to
repel the blacks, but later, believing themselves betrayed by the whites,
they joined the blacks, and the revolt became a war of extermination. It
did not end until the negroes became masters of all the country districts,
and gained a control of the mountainous interior of the island which,
except for a brief interval, they have ever since retained.
This success was in great part due to the famous leader of the blacks, the
renowned Toussaint L'Ouverture, a man who proved himself one of the
greatest and noblest of his race.
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