Toussaint Louverture
1743–1803 2 entries
Biography
Toussaint Louverture was the leader of the Haitian Revolution, the only uprising of enslaved people in history that led to the founding of an independent state. He was born into slavery around 1743 on a plantation in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, learned to read and write, and was freed in his thirties. When the enslaved people of the colony rose up in 1791, he joined the revolt and soon proved to be a gifted general and politician.
After France abolished slavery in 1794, he went over to its side and fought the Spanish and the British, and by 1801 he governed the whole island and had given it a constitution that made him governor for life. Napoleon sent an army to restore French rule, and in 1802 Toussaint was lured to a meeting, arrested and deported to France. He died in 1803 in a cold cell of the Fort de Joux in the Jura mountains. A few months later, in January 1804, Haiti declared its independence.
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