22 Facts About Toussaint L'ouverture

Francois-Dominique Toussaint Louverture was a Haitian general and the most prominent leader of the Haitian Revolution.

Toussaint L'ouverture was a devout Catholic who became a freeman before the revolution and, once freed, identified as a Frenchman for the greater part of his life.

Toussaint L'ouverture was deported to France and jailed at the Fort de Joux.

The original names of Toussaint L'ouverture's parents are unknown as French colonial law mandated that slaves brought to their colonies be made into Catholics, stripped of their African names, and be given more European names in order to assimilate them into the French plantation system.

Toussaint L'ouverture's father received the name Hyppolite upon his baptism on Saint-Domingue as Latin and Greek names were the most fashionable for slaves at this time, followed by French, and Biblical Christian names.

Related searches

Toussaint L'ouverture now went from being a slave of the Breda plantation to becoming a member of the greater community of the gens de couleur libres .

Toussaint L'ouverture began by renting a small coffee plantation along with its thirteen slaves from his future son-in-law.

Gabrielle-Toussaint L'ouverture disappeared from the historical record at this time and is presumed to have died, possibly from the same illness that took Toussaint L'ouverture Jr.

Toussaint L'ouverture remained there until the outbreak of the revolution as a salaried employee and contributed to the daily functions of the plantation.

Toussaint L'ouverture took up his old responsibilities of looking after the livestock and care of the horses.

Many of the devout Catholic slaves and freedman, including Toussaint L'ouverture, identified as free Frenchmen and royalists, who desired to protect a series of progressive legal protections afforded to the black citizenry by King Louis XVI and his predecessors.

Toussaint L'ouverture eventually helped Bayon de Libertat's family escape the island and in the coming years supported them financially as they resettled in the United States and mainland France.

Toussaint L'ouverture hoped to use the occasion to present the rebellion's demands to the colonial assembly, but they refused to meet.

Toussaint L'ouverture gained a reputation for his discipline, training his men in guerrilla tactics and "the European style of war".

Toussaint L'ouverture had made covert overtures to General Laveaux prior but was rebuffed as Louverture's conditions for alliance were deemed unacceptable.

Toussaint L'ouverture was held in general respect, and resorted to a mixture of diplomacy and force to return the field hands to the plantations as emancipated and paid workers.

Toussaint L'ouverture was promoted to commander of the West Province two months later, and in 1797 was appointed as Saint-Domingue's top-ranking officer.

Toussaint L'ouverture promulgated the Constitution on 7 July 1801, officially establishing his authority over the entire island of Hispaniola.

Toussaint L'ouverture celebrated Mass every day when possible, regularly served as godfather at multiple slave baptisms, and constantly quizzed others on the catechism of the church.

Toussaint L'ouverture would grow closer to the Capuchin Order that succeeded them in 1768, especially as they did not own plantations like the Jesuits.

Toussaint L'ouverture'storians have suggested that he was a member of high degree of the Masonic Lodge of Saint-Domingue, mostly based on a Masonic symbol he used in his signature.

Toussaint L'ouverture's membership is, considering his status as a devout Catholic, nonetheless unlikely due to the papal ban on Catholics holding membership in Masonic organizations introduced by Pope Clement XII having gone into effect in 1738.