<P> In 1758 white homeowners on Hispaniola began to restrict rights and create laws to exclude mulattoes and blacks, establishing a rigid class system . There were ten black people for every white one . In France, the majority of the Estates General, an advisory body to the King, constituted itself as the National Assembly, made radical changes in French laws, and on 26 August 1789, published the Declaration of the Rights of Man, declaring all men free and equal . The French Revolution shaped the course of the conflict in Saint - Domingue and was at first widely welcomed on the island . At first, wealthy whites saw it as an opportunity to gain independence from France . The elite planters intended to take control of the island and create trade regulations to further their own wealth and power . </P> <P> Between 1791 and 1804, the leaders François Dominique Toussaint - Louverture and Jean - Jacques Dessalines led the revolution against the slave system established on the island; slavery in Saint - Domingue, along with other Caribbean colonies from the French colonial empire, were the third largest source of income to France . They were inspired by the houngans, sorcerers or priests of Haitian Vodou, Dutty Boukman and François Mackandal . </P> <P> Léger - Félicité Sonthonax from September 1792 to 1795 was the de facto ruler of Saint - Domingue . He was a French Girondist and abolitionist during the French Revolution who controlled 7,000 French troops in Saint - Domingue during part of the Haitian Revolution . His official title was Civil Commissioner . Within a year of his appointment, his powers were considerably expanded by the Committee of Public Safety . Sonthonax believed that Saint - Domingue's whites, most of whom were of Spanish descent, were royalist or separatist conservatives attached to independence or Spain as a way to preserve the slave plantations . He attacked the military power of the white settlers, and by doing so, he alienated the colonists from the French government . Many gens de couleur, mixed - race residents of the colony, asserted that they could form the military backbone of Saint - Domingue if they were given rights, but Sonthonax rejected this view as outdated in the wake of the August 1791 slave uprising . He believed that Saint - Domingue would need ex-slave soldiers among the ranks of the colonial army if it was to survive . Although he did not originally intend to free the slaves, by October 1793 he ended slavery in order to maintain his own power . </P> <P> In 1799, the black military leader Toussaint L'Ouverture brought under French rule a law which abolished slavery, and embarked on a program of modernization . He had become master of the whole island . </P>

Why did the spanish aid the slave revolt in saint-domingue
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