Toussaint L'Ouverture

François-Dominique Toussaint L'Ouverture, also Toussaint Bréda, Toussaint-Louverture (c. 1743 - April 7, 1803) was one of the leaders of the Haïtian Revolution. Along with Jean-Jacques Dessalines, another leader of the Revolution, L'Ouverture is considered as one of the fathers of the Haitian nation.

Early life

Toussaint was reputedly descended from the Arrada people of the Dahomey Coast. His father, Gaou-Guinou, had been brought by the slave traders to the French colony of Saint-Domingue, and sold as a slave to the Count de Bréda. Toussaint was the eldest son and his date of birth is given as either May 20 or November 1 (All Saints' Day procuring the name Toussaint). He also took the surname Breda from his owner.

De Breda was relatively humane and happy to encourage Toussaint to learn to read and write. He became a coachman of the count and was already a noted horse rider and herbalist before his subsequent military and political career. Free black priest Pierre Baptiste taught him to read. He married a woman named Suzan Simone and they had a son, named Placide.

Though it was not widely known during his lifetime, Toussaint was in fact a free man by the time of the great slave uprising he would eventually help lead. He was freed from slavery at about the age of 33, and colonial records show that he leased a field of about 15 hectares with 13 slaves to grow coffee. At the time of this lease, he was still unable to sign, or write, though he would learn these skills before the revolution.

The French Revolution of 1789 had a powerful impact on the island. Inspired by the new philosophies of The Enlightenment, "Liberté, égalité, fraternité", the French proclaimed the Rights of Man to include all free men. When this promise was withdrawn under pressure from the plantation owners it sparked widespread slave uprisings.

Rebellion and negotiations

Toussaint did not participate in the campaign of Vincent Ogé, a wealthy free man of color whose attempt to claim voting rights for this group in October 1790 was brutally crushed. In August 1793, he helped his former owners to flee to the United States, and became an aide to Georges Biassou in his insurgency after the Night of Fire. He rose rapidly in rank and the Black army proved to be surprisingly successful against the fever-ravaged and poorly-led European troops. In 1793, after the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, Toussaint allied with the Spanish to fight against French troops and gained the moniker L'Ouverture ("opening") because he exploited openings in the defences of the opposition; he adopted this as his surname. Later that year the British occupied most of the coastal settlements of Haïti, including Port-au-Prince.

In 1793 Léger Félicité Sonthonax and Étienne Polverel, representatives of the French revolutionary government in Paris, offered freedom to slaves who would join them as they struggled to defeat counter-revolutionaries and fight the foreign invaders. On February 4, 1794, the largely Jacobin National Convention in Paris ratified these emancipation orders, that abolished slavery throughout all territories of the French Republic. In early May 1794, Toussaint left the Spanish and joined the French Revolutionary Army, bringing thousands of Black soldiers with him. He received the rank of Général de Brigade.

Campaign in support of the French Revolution

Under Toussaint's increasingly influential leadership, his French army of Black, Mulatto, and White soldiers defeated the British and Spanish forces. Toussaint's army won seven battles in one week against the British forces in January 1794. He also fought against the uprising of a mulatto leader Pinchinat. In 1797, he fought against the supporters of the returned Sonthonax, and increased his influence in the island, proclaiming his loyalty to the First French Republic. Eventually, he was promoted to Général de Division. The British withdrew from Haïti in 1798.

On May 22 1799 Toussaint signed a trading treaty with the British and the Americans. In the United States Alexander Hamilton was a strong supporter. However after Thomas Jefferson became President in 1801 he reversed the friendly American policy. In October, he invaded Saint-Domingue's southern peninsula and defeated the Mulatto general André Rigaud, his last major rival for power in the colony, forcing him to flee to France. Toussaint then turned his forces against the Spanish in Colony of Santo Domingo. He defeated them by 1800 and in January 24 1801 officially took control of Santo Domingo in the name of the French republic. Toussaint drafted a committee to write a constitution for the colony, which went into effect in July 7 1801, also enforcing his own authority in the island.

Leclerc's campaign and Toussaint's captivity

When Napoleon Bonaparte came to power in France, he began to work with colonists to return France's Caribbean territories to their earlier profitability as plantation colonies. Denying that he was trying to reinstate slavery, Napoleon's brother-in-law Charles Leclerc attempted to regain French control of the island in 1802. He landed on the island in January 20 and moved against Toussaint.

Over the following months, Toussaint's troops fought against the French but some of his officers defected to join Leclerc. On May 7 1802, Toussaint signed a treaty with the French in Cap-Haïtien, in condition that there was no return to slavery, and retired to his farm in Ennery. However, after three weeks, Leclerc sent troops to seize Toussaint and his family, shipping them to France on board a warship. They arrived in France in July 2. On August 25, 1802, Toussaint was imprisoned in the castle Fort-de-Joux in Doubs. He died of pneumonia in captivity.

Popular culture

On the Santana 3 album, the group Santana has a song named in Toussaint's honor, although the lyrics are all in Spanish and they have nothing to do with Toussaint.
David Rudder, one of Trinidad and Tobago's leading calypsonians produced a 1988 album, Haiti in which the title track begins with the lyrics "Toussaint was a mighty man".
After many years of trying to produce a big-screen biopic of Toussaint, Hollywood actor Danny Glover was finally scheduled to begin directing the film in the autumn of 2006 (see external links below).

Literature and Art

English poet William Wordsworth published his sonnet To Toussaint L'Ouverture in January 1803.
In 1938, American artist Jacob Lawrence created a series of paintings about the life of Toussaint L'Ouverture, which he later adapted into a series of prints.
In 2004 an exhibition of paintings entitled Caribbean Passion: Haiti 1804, by artist Kimathi Donkor, was held in London to celebrate the bicentenary of Haiti's revolution.

Bibliography

Laurent Dubois and John D. Garrigus. Slave Revolution in the Caribbean, 1789-1804: A Brief History with Documents (2006)
DuPuy, Alex. ''Haiti in the World Economy: Class, Race, and Underdevelopment since 1700;; Westview Press. (1989)
Alfred N. Hunt. Haiti's Influence on Antebellum America: Slumbering Volcano in the Caribbean (1988)
C.L.R. James. The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution 2nd ed. (1989)
Arthur L. Stinchcombe. Sugar Island Slavery in the Age of Enlightenment: The Political Economy of the Caribbean World Princeton University Press. (1995)

External links

Toussaint L'Ouverture: A Biography and Autobiography by J. R. Beard, 1863
A section of Bob Corbett's on-line course on the history of Haïti that deals with Toussaint's rise to power.
The Louverture Project: Toussaint Louverture
The Louverture Project: Memoir of Toussaint Louverture, Written by Himself
Toussiant the Hollywood movie is in Pre Production and stars Wesley Snipes.

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