Toussaint L'Ouverture
Toussaint L’Ouverture was a former slave who trained others like him and French deserters in guerilla warfare to fight for independence from France, leading the only successful modern slave revolt.
Early Life
Francois Dominique Toussaint was born in Breda, Haiti on May 20, 1743 to Gaou Guinou, the younger son of the West African king of Allado who was sold into slavery, and his second wife Pauline, the eldest of their children (1; 2; 3). He was opposed to voodoo, Catholic, a vegetarian, and very rarely drank alcohol (3).
As a child, his owner taught him to write and read. Toussaint liked classics and Enlightenment political philosophers, such as John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau; he was an expert in medicine and horsemanship (1). Toussaint spoke Haitian Creole, an African tribal language, Latin, and some French by age 20 (2; 3). He was given his freedom in 1776 after being the chief steward of the plantation, but continued to work there as a free man.
He married Suzanne Simone Baptiste in 1782 and they had 3 sons: Placide, Isaac, and Saint-Jean (1); Toussaint fathered children with other women before his marriage but little is known about them, other than most predeceased their father (2).
During the Revolution
Toussaint Louverture, 1805 by John Kay. Used under public domain.
"To Toussaint L'Ouverture"
TOUSSAINT, the most unhappy man of men!
Whether the all-cheering sun be freed to shed
His beams around thee, or thou rest thy head
Pillow'd in some dark dungeon's noisome den -
O miserable chieftain! where and when
Wilt thou find patience? Yet die not; do thou
Wear rather in thy bonds a cheerful brow:
Though fallen thyself, never to rise again,
Live, and take comfort. Thou hast left behind
Powers that will work for thee: air, earth, and skies:
There's not a breathing of the common wind
That will forget thee; thou has great allies;
Thy friends are exultations, agonies,
And love, and man's unconquerable mind.
A poem written by William Wordsworth while Toussaint L'Ouverture was at Fort de Joux.
Wordsworth, William. The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth. Clarendon Press, 1940.
Toussaint was nearly 50 when the revolution began but didn't get involved until it came to his plantation; he secured his family’s safety in Santo Domingo, put his boss’s family on a boat to America, and joined Georges Biassou as his aide, fighting with the Spanish. Toussaint the became chief medical officer, due to his African and Creole herbal-medical techniques. He was given command of 600 men, that grew to 4,000, including Jean-Jacques Dessalines; he took the name L’Ouverture.
After France emancipated their slaves, he joined the French and fought Spain in Santa Domingo, which he captured and held until the Treaty of Basel. After that, he turned his attention to containing the British in Saint Domingue.
After dealing with international unrest, in 1796 he focused on domestic issues, like Rigaud’s uprising with the mulatto slave-owning population, whom he defeated in 1799. L’Ouverture was promoted to Governor-General, and tried to reestablish agriculture, the economy, and international trade while introducing a constitution which declared him governor for life.
Napoleon Bonaparte affirmed his position whilst forbidding him to invade Santo Domingo, but Toussaint did it anyway with little effort, abolishing slavery on the entire island and causing Napoleon to pull his support. Napoleon sent General Leclerc to the island, whom L’Ouverture fought for years; eventually L’Ouverture’s main supporters, namely Dessalines and Christophe, left him for Leclerc (1).
Death
Toussaint then retired from political and military affairs to a plantation (3); he was invited to the French General Brunet’s quarters to discuss peace in 1802 but was arrested and deported to France. He died in Fort de Joux, France on April 7, 1803, due to pneumonia and starvation from interrogation. L’Ouverture is still regarded as a hero and inspired revolutions in Latin America and by American abolitionists (1).
1. Biography.com Editors. “Toussaint L’Ouverture Biography.” Biography.com, A&E Television Networks, 2 Apr. 2014. https://www.biography.com/people/toussaint-louverture-9509252.
2. Editors of TheFamousPeople.com. “Toussaint Louverture Biography.” TheFamousPeople.com, TheFamousPeople.com, 9 Oct. 2017. https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/toussaint-louverture-5671.php.
3. Fagg, John E. “Toussaint Louverture: Haitian Leader”. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 1 Dec. 2018. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Toussaint-Louverture.
By Aislinn Baltas