Short answers, pulled from the story.
King Louis XIV officially recognized the settlement in 1659. This recognition followed years of French buccaneers establishing a presence on Tortuga and surviving through piracy and hunting wild cattle.
By 1789, Saint-Domingue produced half of all sugar consumed in Europe and the Americas. The colony generated more sugar than all British West Indies colonies combined while eight thousand plantations covered its land.
Jean-Baptiste Belley became an affranchi who turned into a rich planter before serving as Deputy of the French National Convention. He represented the Gens de couleur libres class which controlled much wealth and land by 1789.
In 1791, slaves and some Creoles took part in a Vodou ceremony at Bois Caïman that catalyzed the Haitian Revolution. African folklore such as Compère Lapin tales spread throughout Haiti after this event commingled Catholic liturgy with beliefs from Guinea, Congo, and Dahomey.
The last battle occurred on the 18th of November 1803 near Cap-Haïtien and it was called the Battle of Vertières. When French forces withdrew only 7,000 troops remained to ship home after Leclerc died of yellow fever in November 1802.
King Charles X issued a decree recognizing independence on the 17th of April 1825 for a price of 150 million francs ten times what the U.S. paid for Louisiana. The sum compensated French colonists for lost revenues from slavery while Jean-Pierre Boyer signed the document on the 11th of July 1825 under threat of violence.