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 Haitian Revolution. pronunciation ( help· info)

Toussaint was reputedly descended from the western African Arrada tribe. His father, Gaou-Guinou, had been brought to Saint-Domingue and sold 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, egalité, et 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 When this promise was withdrawn under pressure from the plantation owners it sparked widespread slave uprisings.

Toussaint did not participate in the campaign of Vincent Ogé, a wealthy free man of colour 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 of America 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 Toussaint allied with the Spanish to fight against French troops and gained the nickname L'Ouverture ("opening") because he exploited openings in the defences of the opposition; he adopted the moniker as his surname. Later that year the British occupied most of the coastal settlements of Haiti 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 White counter-revolutionaries and fight the foreign invaders. On February 4, 1794, now largely Jacobin, Revolutionary legislature 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 rejoined the French army, bringing thousands of Black soldiers with him. He received the rank of brigade general.

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. He increased his influence in the island, proclaiming his loyalty to the French republic. Eventually he was promoted to division general. The British withdrew from Haiti in 1798.

On May 22, 1799 Toussaint signed a trading treaty with the British and the Americans. Later in Oct. he invaded Saint-Domingue's southern peninsula and defeated the Mulatto general André Rigaud, his last major rival for power in the colony, and forced him to flee to France. Then Toussaint turned his forces against the Spanish in 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.

When Napoleon 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 in San Domingo on 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 Le Cap 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 Toussant and his family and shipped them to France in a warship. They arrived in France in July 2.

August 25, 1802 Toussaint was imprisoned in the castle Fort-de-Joux in Doubs. He died of pneumonia in captivity in April 17, 1803.

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.