In 1791, revolution broke out in the French colony of Saint Domingue, later called Haiti. The Haitian Revolution resonated in communities surrounding the Atlantic Ocean. One of the richest European outposts in the New World, the western third of the Caribbean island was home to some of the largest and most brutal slave plantations. Slave workers grew sugar, coffee, indigo, and cotton and endured horrific death rates, requiring constant infusions of slaves from Africa. In 1789, approximately 465,000 black slaves lived on the French colony of the island, along with fewer than 31,000 whites. Additionally, there were approximately 23,000 free blacks and mixed-race people called gens de couleur, who could own land and accumulate wealth but had no political rights. In 1791 this tense racial situation exploded. The French Revolution (1789-99) brought a civil war to Santo Domingo characterized by a shocking series of desertions, betrayals, massacres and invasions. In the convoluted course of events, two larger trends emerged: first, the ideals of human rights spread further and further into Haitian society; and, secondly, the slaves rejected slavery and committed themselves to their freedom. In May 1791 the French Convention granted political rights to gens de couleur whose parents were born free, but this act only seemed to create more unrest, antagonizing whites and opening up new possibilities for slaves. By the summer, slave revolts had broken out in various parts of Santo Domingo, and royalists began to organize in opposition to the republicans of the French Revolution. In reward for their service in defense of the republic, the French government extended political rights to the gens de couleur, regardless of birth, in April 1792... mid-paper... keep their slaves (Pennsylvania had already approved an act of gradual emancipation). On the other hand, South Carolina admitted many masters and their slaves. Among African Americans, the memory and example of Haiti remained strong. Black sailors carried word of the rebellion to ports from New England to the Carolinas. The Haitian Revolution also inspired free black activism: in 1797 Boston's Prince Hall encouraged his brothers to unify and remember the Haitian rebels as they fought racial prejudice in the United States. Gabriel's Rebellion (1800) in Virginia may have been inspired in part by the events in Saint Domingue; Many of the slaves involved in the Deslondes Revolt in Louisiana in 1811 reportedly came from Saint Domingue; and Denmark Vesey, who led a slave revolt in 1822 in Charleston, South Carolina, promised his followers Haiti's support.