Hati is quite unique , there was a well led slave revolt , coincidental with an outbreak of disease that weakened the French .
The reaction in the US to Hati was mixed of course , some cheered the impulse to liberty , some feared the example of successfull slave revolt.
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The slave revolt in Haiti did not start out as any sort of organized effort, but the French were not prepared for it at all, and malaria was the greatest ally of the rebellious slaves. After a while, the Haitians did organize quite well, and of course, they were more immune to malaria than the French troops. There is a great book (I am sure more than one, really) on this: Black Majesty; The Life of Christophe, King of Haiti (Pocket Books 857)
Isabel Allende recently released a translation of her novel on the Haitian rebellion. "Island beneath the Sea. The library still hasn't got a copy of it, but I am sure it will be great: I have enjoyed all her books, and read them in both languages.
http://www.microsoft.com/isapi/redir.dll?prd=ie&pver=6&ar=CLinksThe Haitian revolution was celebrated by a few abolitionists and used as an example of why slavery was a bad idea by others, but it mostly scared the bejeezus out of White Americans, especially in the South, as most of the stories that came out of that war were of the "crazed savages killing and eating civilized White people." If you were to take a poll in the Dominican Republic today, I am pretty sure that most Dominicans, both White and Black, would agree that Haitians back then were cannibalistic barbarians. They used to teach this in public schools there, until Balaguer left office.
There is no question who won the Haitian rebellion: the US. It convinced Napoleon that there was no reason for France to keep any major colonies in the New World, and he sold Louisiana to the Americans for about three cents an acre, in order to conquer Europe, a continent that he deemed worth conquering. The French kept Martinique, Guadaloupe, St.Martin and a few other places because no one would buy them except the British and they were enemies. The US could have probably gotten Guiane and the Iles du Salut for a pittance.
Haiti eventually was forced to pay for the value of the plantation land and the cost of the slaves lost in order to establish relations with France and other European countries.