Haitian connections in the Atlantic World : recognition after revolution On January 1 1804 Haiti shocked the world by declaring independence. Historians have long portrayed Haitis postrevolutionary period as one during which the international community rejected Haitis Declaration of Independence and adopted a policy of isolation designed to contain the impact of the worlds only successful slave revolution. Julia Gaffield however anchors a fresh vision of Haitis first tentative years of independence to its relationships with other nations and empires and reveals the surprising limits of the countrys supposed isolation