Also known as: Port-au-Prince burning of 1791, Burning of Port-au-Prince
Last updated: April 26, 2026
In November 1791, immediately following the breakdown of the November 21 affair, white gangs rampaged through Port-au-Prince, burning large parts of the commercial quarter and hunting free people of color in the streets. The destruction revealed how early the capital had become a site of racialized urban war, and showed the collapse of the West Province treaty politics into retaliatory terror. This event is distinct from the later burning of Cap-Français in 1793, which occurred in a different political moment and with a different coalition structure.
Part of the gens de couleur forces active in the West Province during the period that included the burning of Port-au-Prince.
Praloto's gang set fire to 27 blocks of Port-au-Prince's commercial quarter and massacred free colored and Black people in the streets; two-thirds of the city was destroyed.
The Suisses crisis and the burning were part of the same November 1791 West Province collapse
The November 21 affair directly triggered the burning of Port-au-Prince
The fighting extended to the outskirts including Bizoton
The burning destroyed much of Port-au-Prince's commercial quarter
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"Burning of Port-au-Prince (1791)." 1791. Rasin.ai, 2026. https://rasin.ai/connections/events/burning-of-port-au-prince-1791. Accessed 2026-05-05.