Toussaint louverture biography haiti rebellion
Toussaint louverture family.
How did Toussaint L'ouverture, born into bondage in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti) and enslaved for more than half his life, come to lead the most successful slave revolt in history—and help precipitate the downfall of European colonialism in the western hemisphere?
Saint-Domingue in the late 18th century thrived as the wealthiest colony in the Americas.
Toussaint louverture biography haiti rebellion
Its sugar, coffee, indigo and cotton plantations minted money, fueled by a vast enslaved labor force. A French colony since 1697, it occupied the western third of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, while the Spanish had colonized the eastern side, called Santo Domingo (now the Dominican Republic).
In 1791, revolution brewed among the island’s brutally enslaved majority—inspired in part by the egalitarian ideals driving France’s own recent revolution.
As the island's enslaved workers organized to burn plantations and kill many owners, Toussaint initially laid low. Having been free for some 15 years, he f