This cane belonged to Toussaint L’Ouverture, a military and political leader in the Haitian Revolution. The revolution began as a slave revolt in the French colony of Saint-Domingue in 1791 and ended with emancipation and the founding of the free nation of Haiti in 1804. Nearly half a million enslaved people gained freedom. These events terrified U.S. slaveholders and other whites while they heartened African Americans. The United States did not recognize the independence of Haiti from France until 1862. A U.S. Department of State official acquired this cane there later in the 19th century.