In 1804, Haiti declared independence after the successful revolution of enslaved and formerly enslaved people against French colonial rule. It became the first Black republic and the first state born from a successful slave revolt. The event terrified slaveholding empires and inspired anti-colonial imaginations worldwide.

The Haitian Revolution reshaped Black Atlantic poetry, abolitionist writing, and later Caribbean literature. Poets such as Aime Cesaire, Derek Walcott, and many Haitian writers returned to Haiti as a symbol of rebellion, trauma, silencing, and self-authored history.