Before the Spanish arrived on the island in 1492, it was inhabited by about 4,000,000 indigenous Tainos, meaning literally, 'men of the good'. The Tainos were a gentle and calm people who had migrated from South America centuries earlier. Soon after the Spanish arrived however, most were soon wiped out by enslavement, disease or massacre.

On the night of August 14, 1791, a man named Boukman organised a meeting with enslaved Africans in Bois Caiman, in the northern mountains of the island (depicted below). This meeting preceded the uprising that began on 22 August 1791 and which would pave the way towards Haiti's independence. The French quickly captured Boukman, who was leading the uprising, beheaded him and brought the rebellion under control. They exhibited Boukman's head on Cap's square to show the slaves that their invincible leader was dead.

Toussaint L'Ouverture, a great leader and revolutionary, was born on the Bréda plantation, near the northern coast of Saint-Domingue. He worked as a domestic servant in the plantation house and was freed from his enslavement in 1776, when he was 33 years old. He became involved in St Domingue's politics from 1791, using the French, the Spanish and the English against each other. He managed to eliminate all his enemies until he was the only power left in St Domingue (now Haiti). By 1801, he was governing the whole island by himself and proclaimed himself governor of the colony. However, during a meeting in June 1802, the French arrested Toussaint L'Ouverture. He was exiled to France and died in the Fortress of the Joux, in the mountains of Jura, in April 1803. But Toussaint left behind a well trained army, led by Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Henri Christophe. They declared war on the French, eventually defeated Napoleon's forces and drove all whites from the island. They changed the name of the colony back to its indigenous name 'Haiti', meaning 'mountainous'. The republic of Haiti, created by former enslaved Africans, then declared its independence on January 1, 1804. Today, the legacy of Toussaint L'Ouverture continues to inspire people around the world in their struggle for cultural and political independence.

Haitian Vodun has been strongly influenced by the Ibo and Kongo peoples of Central Africa and the Yoruba of Nigeria, and many different peoples of Africa have representation in the liturgy of the Sevi Gine, as do the indigenous Taino, the original peoples of the island.

Today Haitian Vodun represents the pressures many different cultures and ethnicities of people feel having been uprooted from Africa and taken to Hispanola (today's Haiti) during the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Under slavery, African cultures and religions were suppressed, lineages were fragmented, and people pooled their religious knowledge. Out of this fragmentation they became culturally unified. In addition to combining the spirits of many different African and Taino peoples, pieces of Catholic liturgy have been incorporated to replace lost prayers or elements. In addition images of Catholic saints are used to represent various spirits or misteh (mysteries), and many saints themselves are honoured in Vodun in their own right. This syncretism allows Vodun to encompass the African, the Taino and the European ancestors in a whole and complete way. It is truly a Kreyol religion.