Inspired in part by the French revolution (of which it was a colony of), Haiti's slave population seize the chance to rebel: setting fire to plantations, killing slave-owners, forming armed bands to fight off the white militia and spread the revolt, and throwing up leaders of their own. The most prominent, the former livestock steward Toussaint L'Ouverture, was soon skillfully maneuvering between rival white groups, the mulattos, an invading Spanish army from the other half of the island, and successive representatives from the Girondins in France.