The Colony of Saint Domingue In looking at the revolution of the slaves from the colony of Saint Domingue, we must consider several different aspects that helped to create the atmosphere that was suitable enough for this revolution to take hold. The "Eden of the Western World" (Beckles 402) that produced almost half of the sugar and coffee consumed in the Americas and Europe was soon to become the stage of intensely bloody, deadly battles. In order to better understand how and why this revolution, that has been called "one of the few revolutions in world history that have had such profound consequences" (Shepherd 402), could have happened we must look at who was living in the colony at this time period. In the late 1780’s the French colony of Saint Domingue consisted of what is primarily know as the "three-tier" structure, which was what generally existed in these sugar colonies. Race as well as economic standing and social position separated the three groups that made up this structure.
