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The turn of the 19^th century was a defining moment in Caribbean history, as a slave insurrection that began in the French colony of St Domingue in 1791 resulted in the establishment of Haiti as a free, independent nation in 1804. Prior to 1804, St Domingue was regarded as the most valuable colony in the Caribbean, and the most valuable French overseas possession. It produced over sixty percent of the world's coffee, and a significant portion of Europe's sugar imports.

Following the removal of the French colonial administration, and the expulsion or departure of most white merchants, the economy and agricultural output of Haiti weaned, as Europeans were resistant to trade with former-slaves, and instead invested in the production of these goods in other regions of the Americas (for example, Cuba quickly emerged as the world's largest producer of sugar). In Haiti, clayed sugar output dropped by over 99 percent between 1798 and 1801, and muscovado sugar dropped from 94 million pounds in 1789, to 18.5 million in 1801, before dropping to just a few thousand pounds per year in the mid-1820s. Haiti managed to maintain a significant portion of its coffee exports, however annual quantities in the 1820s were usually less than half of the output in 1789.