section_path: National variations/Haiti
section_name: Haiti
paragraph_text: Haiti
  
  The Haitian Revolution began in 1791 and ended in 1804 and shows how Enlightenment ideas "were part of complex transcultural flows." Radical ideas in Paris during and after the French Revolution were mobilized in Haiti, such as by Toussaint Louverture. Toussaint had read the critique of European colonialism in Guillaume Thomas François Raynal 's book Histoire des deux Indes and "was particularly impressed by Raynal's prediction of the coming of a 'Black Spartacus. ' "
  
  The revolution combined Enlightenment ideas with the experiences of the slaves in Haiti, two-thirds of whom had been born in Africa and could "draw on specific notions of kingdom and just government from West and Central Africa, and to employ religious practices such as voodoo for the formation of revolutionary communities." The revolution also affected France and "forced the French National Convention to abolish slavery in 1794."