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WHYY joined the University of Pennsylvania’s McNeil Center for Early American Studies to present “We the People: Revolutions for Everyone,” a unique series that uses the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence as a starting point to examine how ideas about democracy, freedom, citizenship and belonging have evolved in Philadelphia and across the United States.

Through five distinct community conversations across the city, the program explores themes embedded in the declaration, such as liberty, belonging, exclusion and immigration.

The latest in the series focused on the French and Haitian revolutions, the former of which profoundly impacted the latter, and the latter of which influenced the diverse makeup of Philadelphia.

That focus is also the theme of a temporary exhibit at Penn Libraries’ Kislak Center, where the event took place on March 23. The temporary exhibit will run through Sept. 4.

“We are celebrating Philadelphia as the birthplace of America, being a pivotal place for the roots of the American Revolution, including a vibrant immigrant existence then and today,” Sarah Glover, WHYY’s vice president of news, said at the event. “And in that vein, it is important to acknowledge the complexities and similarities from different revolutions over time.”

Vive la révolution and Viv revolisyon an

Historian John Davies, one of the panelists, described the Haitian Revolution as being deeply intertwined with the French Revolution, which began in 1789. According to Davies, the upheaval in France created an opening in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, as Haiti was then known, where different groups began competing for greater rights and autonomy.

White plantation owners debated whether to break from French control, while free people of color sought expanded political and civil rights from the French government. At the same time, enslaved Africans in the colony saw an opportunity to fight for their own freedom.

“It was largely, at first, a slave revolt that took advantage of the opportunities that the French Revolution created,” Davies said.

As France descended into the Reign of Terror era of the revolution, French commissioners sent to Saint-Domingue struggled to maintain control. Eventually, they realized they could not defeat the uprising without the support of formerly enslaved people. In 1793, French authorities abolished slavery in the colony for those willing to fight for France, transforming the conflict from a slave revolt into a broader revolutionary war.

Davies said figures like Toussaint Louverture emerged during this period by navigating both the ideals and contradictions of the French Revolution. Louverture aligned himself with revolutionary France after slavery was abolished and declared himself governor-general of Saint-Domingue.

But tensions with Napoleon Bonaparte later pushed the colony toward full independence and led to a “resurgence of insurgence,” as Davies called it. By the end of 1803, after defeating French forces, Haiti became the first Black republic in the Western Hemisphere and the first nation founded through a successful slave revolution.

“On Jan. 1, 1804, we can say the Haitian Revolution end[ed],” Davies said. “The new state of Haiti has been established.”