The seed they planted was slow to germinate among peoples who had been taught to regard things foreign as outlandish and heretical.

Many years therefore elapsed before the ideas of the few became the convictions of the masses, for the conservatism and loyalty of the common people were unbelieveably steadfast.
Not Spanish and Portuguese America, but Santo Domingo, an island which had been under French rule since 1795 and which was tenanted chiefly by ignorant and brutalized negro slaves, was the scene of the first effectual assertion of independence in the lands originally colonized by Spain.

Rising in revolt against their masters, the negroes had won complete control under their remarkable commander, Toussaint L'Ouverture, when Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul, decided to restore the old regime.

But the huge expedition which was sent to reduce the island ended in absolute failure.

After a ruthless racial warfare, characterized by ferocity on both sides, the French retired.