Toussaint L’Ouverture (c. 1743-1803) was a Haitian general and independence leader. He helped free his people from human enslavement and found a nation. It’s the only time in history this was ever done. Haitians should be celebrated for this great humanitarian achievement. 🇭🇹
The Haitian Revolution was complicated because you had French, French-Americans, Africans, African-Americans and French-Africans all fighting each other. Plus there was fighting against the Spanish rulers of Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) and the British too.
Born Into Slavery, He Freed His People
François Dominique Toussaint was born into human enslavement around 1743 in Bréda near Cap-Haitien on Haiti’s northern coast. He was a hard worker and very bright. Toussaint rose to plantation manager and was freed in 1776. His nickname “L’Ouverture” means the opening.
Toussaint L’Ouverture was Talented, Complicated Man
When the revolt that launched the Haitian Revolution began, L’Ouverture hesitated at first. After helping his plantation boss escape, L’Ouverture joined the Black forces fighting the landowners. He was a capable military leader who built up a guerrilla army.
When France and Spain went to war in 1793, L’Ouverture joined the Spaniards against the French. When France abolished slavery, he switched allegiance back to the French and that made the difference. He was such a good fighter and politician that he eventually controlled the entire island of Hispaniola.
Like other first-generation Americans in the Colonial Period, Toussaint first tried to rebuild his country as an independent French territory with a mix of Africans, African Americans, and French Americans.
In 1802, a French general invited L’Ouverture to a meeting, but kidnapped him instead and sent the leader to exile where he died of neglect at Fort-de-Joux, France (near Switzerland) on April 7, 1803. Literally, a doctor warned the French that he was going to die. They didn’t care. That’s what the French wanted.
It’s sad because Haiti in spite of all the colonial violence, produced a generation of great and capable leaders. The Colonizers killed them one by one, and destroyed the future of Haiti. The problems in Haiti are always brought in from the outside ~ and blamed on Haitians.
L’Ouverture’s lieutenant Dessalines led the country to independence on January 1, 1804.
A Leader who Changed American History
The Haitian Revolution led to a Haitian diaspora which contributed to Carnival and Latin music and dance traditions which are still with us today.
Pushing the French out of Saint-Domingue (Haiti) ended one of the world’s most violent industrial slavery operations. It also pushed the French out of the Americas for a while and led to the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 which enlarged the United States by one third and set the stage for what became the United States we know today.