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Toussaint Louverture

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Toussaint Louverture
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(born c. 1743, Bréda, near Cap-Français, Saint-Domingue — died April 7, 1803, Fort-de-Joux, Fr.) Leader of the Haitian independence movement during the French Revolution. Born a slave, he was freed in 1777. In 1791 he joined a slave rebellion and soon assembled an army of his own, which he trained in guerrilla warfare. When France and Spain went to war in 1793, he and other black commanders joined the Spaniards, but in 1794 he switched his allegiance to the French because France, unlike Spain, had recently abolished slavery. His revolt created the first independent nation in Latin America. He rose from lieutenant governor to governor-general of Saint-Domingue and gradually rid himself of nominal French superiors. Treaties with the British secured their withdrawal, and he began trade with them and the U.S. In 1801 he turned his attention to Santo Domingo, the Spanish-controlled portion of Hispaniola, driving out the Spanish and freeing the slaves there. He made himself governor-general for life. He was deposed by the French in 1802 and died in custody in France. See also Jean-Jacques Dessalines.

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French Literature Companion: Toussaint Louverture
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Louverture, Toussaint (c.1743-1803). Born a slave and freed by his owner in 1776, François-Dominique-Toussaint Bréda, later known as Toussaint Louverture (sometimes L'Ouverture), led the slave uprising in Saint-Domingue (Haiti) from 1794 to 1802, when he was captured by the French and taken to France. There he died, a prisoner in the Forteresse de Joux (Haut-Doubs), a year before his country achieved full independence. His life has inspired numerous literary works, notably plays by Lamartine (Toussaint Louverture, 1850) and Glissant (Monsieur Toussaint, 1961), and a major study by Césaire (Toussaint Louverture: la Révolution française et le problème colonial, 1960).

[Richard Burton]

 
 

 

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
French Literature Companion. The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French. Copyright © 1995, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more