It ' s similar to the historiographical debate over whether the French Revolution was the result of the people rising up against their oppressors the aristocracy and monarchy , or whether it was a bourgeoisie grab for power by overthrowing the nobility , or whether it was the inevitable conclusion of economic change in conflict with traditional restrictions , etc etc . In fact all of these explanations are insufficient because they ask the wrong questionthe question isn ' t the who or why of the revolution as an event , but the how and why of its character and form . The history of the history of the Haitian Revolution has the same issue with asking the wrong questions , but it differs insofar as it ' s also charged with racial politics and the legacy of colonialism . Previously , historians gave credit to the free people of color at a time when the descendants of this group were in power in Haiti , whereas later historians emphasized the black slave population ' s role in inciting and carrying out the bloody business of overthrowing a slave society . Still others have emphasized the role the French Revolution and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen played as an ideological inspiration for the slavesfree people of color to rise up . Of course , this search for an origin or a single group of actors responsible for revolution is misplaced , as it is with the French Revolution . More recent historiography has thus challenged all of these notionsfree people of color were slave owners who used revolutioninspired arguments for natural rights to perpetuate , rather than abolish , slavery . Similarly , not all slaves were one monolithic entity , nor were all blacks , as the island ' s death rate required a constant influx of new slaves . The Revolution didn ' t happen on the turn of a dime , but was shaped by and contingent upon centuries of slow change at institutional , legal , social , and cultural levels . Geographic differences between different parts of the island played a significant role in the extent and efficacy of these changes , notably the influence of Europeans , which was less in the south than in the north . Thus the difficulty with the French and Haitian Revolutionsand perhaps all revolutions . At the time , contemporaries present them as a break from the past , when in hindsight they clearly are not . Yet the chaos and inexplicability of the events , combined with the their polemic extremes and hugely significant consequences , provide a wealth of substance for future historians to manipulate into narratives that are useful for their own time . This is always the case with history , of course , it just happens that revolutions are particularly wellsuited to this end .