Black Spartacus – The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture
Hylands LRC – highly recommended reading for any time of the year.
Toussaint Louverture was born into slavery but became a great military leader. He led the fight for the independence of Haiti.
Francois Dominique Toussaint was born in about 1742 in Saint-Dominique (now Haiti.) Although he was enslaved he learned French and Latin. As a young man he supervised the work of other slaves on the large farm where he lived. He became a free man in 1777.
During most of Toussaint’s life, France controlled Saint-Dominique. But the enslaved people greatly outnumbered the French people living there. In 1791 the slaves rose up in rebellion and Toussaint formed his own rebel army. France fought to end the rebellion but by 1801 Toussaint had taken over all of Hispaniola. He freed every slaved person on the island and then made himself governor-general for life.
Find out more about this great man in this definitive biography.
