1668–1803: Saint-Domingue became the most productive colony in the eighteenth-century world, a success built upon the labor of nearly 800,000 enslaved Africans.

1668–1803: Saint-Domingue became the most productive colony in the eighteenth-century world, a success built upon the labor of nearly 800,000 enslaved Africans. West Central Africa provided the largest share of captives, followed by the Bight of Benin and the Bight of Biafra. French merchants, particularly those from Nantes and Bordeaux, dominated the traffic and supplied the colony with a relentless stream of new arrivals. This massive demographic shift created the conditions for the world-historical revolution that would eventually lead to the independence of Haiti.