Haiti has had a successful revolution.
Haiti . In the midst of the French Revolution ( 1789 -- 1799 ) , slaves and free people of colour revolted in the Haitian Revolution ( 1791 -- 1804 ) , culminating in the abolition of slavery and the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte 's army at the Battle of Vertières . Afterward the sovereign nation of Haiti was established on 1 January 1804 the first independent nation of Latin America and the Caribbean , the second republic in the Americas , the only nation in the western hemisphere to have defeated three European superpowers ( France , Spain , and the UK ) , and the only nation in the world established as a result of a successful slave revolt .