I had recently been told that the tale of Spartacus and his rebellion was a very popular story for children in the USSR, and was framed in school as a moral struggle in line with contemporary* Soviet values.
Given that there would have been a context for analyzing slave rebellions in education - was the Haitian Revolution part of the regular curriculum? It seems like the topic was skipped over quite a bit in the western world - I only learned the details about it from Mike Duncan.
*anecdote from friend's Babushka - 1960's rural Smolensk
The Haitian Revolution was mentioned in the context of the Latin American wars of independence. Here is a quote from a Soviet textbook:
The island of Haiti was discovered by Columbus, who founded the first colony of Europeans in America there. Then French pirates settled on this island and later the island passed to France. Most of the local Indians died out from disease or were exterminated, as in other islands of the West Indies. Therefore, many black slaves from Africa were imported to cultivate the sugar cane plantations in Haiti.
By the end of the 18th century, there were over 400 thousand black slaves and several tens of thousands of mulattoes (descendants of whites and blacks) in the French possessions in Haiti. With their labor, they enriched the owners of the plantations. There were also many white farmers and artisans on the island. Slaves often rebelled. The great uprising that began in 1791 became the first and only victorious slave revolution in history, who seized power and formed a small but independent state. The uprising of the 13 American colonies and the revolution that began in France contributed to the rise of the liberation struggle of the people of Haiti. This success was facilitated by the joint action of slaves and poor white people.
At the head of the revolution was Toussaint-Louverture, the son of a slave and at first the slave himself. Toussaint stood out for his courage and leadership. "Our motto is to conquer freedom or die!" - he said. Toussaint Louverture announced the emancipation of the slaves and the transfer to them of the land taken from the planters. A few years later, on the orders of Napoleon Bonaparte, French troops arrived in Haiti. Toussaint was captured and sent to France, where he died in prison.
But France was occupied by wars in Europe and its troops were driven out by the Haitians. The rebels proclaimed independence in 1804. The Republic of Haiti was formed on the island. The best lands there gradually passed into the hands of wealthy owners. In 1844, the eastern part of the island separated from the Republic of Haiti into an independent Dominican Republic. In the twentieth century, the island of Haiti was repeatedly invaded by the United States to keep these republics dependent on American capitalists.
No mention of the Haitian Empires, of course.