77 Facts About Toussaint Louverture

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

Toussaint Louverture was born enslaved on the French colony of Saint-Domingue, now known as Haiti.

Toussaint Louverture 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 Louverture gradually established control over the whole island and used his political and military influence to gain dominance over his rivals.

Toussaint Louverture was deported to France and jailed at the Fort de Joux.

The original names of Toussaint Louverture'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 Louverture'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.

Toussaint Louverture is thought to have been born on the plantation of Breda at Haut de Cap in Saint-Domingue, where his parents were enslaved and where he would spend the majority of his life before the revolution.

Toussaint Louverture would grow closest to his younger brother Paul, who along with his other siblings were baptized into the Catholic Church by the local Jesuit Order.

Toussaint and his siblings would go on to be trained as domestic servants with Louverture being trained as an equestrian and coachmen after showing a talent for handling the horses and oxen on the plantation.

In spite of this relative privilege, there is evidence that even in his youth Toussaint Louverture's pride pushed him to engage in fights with members of the Petits-blancs community, who worked on the plantation as hired help.

In spite or perhaps because of this protection, Toussaint Louverture went on to engage in other fights.

Until 1938, historians believed that Toussaint Louverture had been a slave until the start of the revolution.

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

Now enjoying a greater degree of relative freedom, Toussaint Louverture dedicated himself to building wealth and gaining further social mobility through emulating the model of the grands blancs and rich gens de couleur libres by becoming a planter.

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

One of the slaves Toussaint Louverture owned at this time is believed to have been Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who would go onto become one of Toussaint Louverture's most loyal lieutenants and a member of his personal guard during the Haitian revolution.

Between 1761 and 1777, Toussaint Louverture met and married his first wife Cecile in a Catholic ceremony.

Toussaint Louverture eventually bought the freedom of Cecile, their children, his sister Marie-Jean, his wife's siblings, and a slave named Jean-Baptist, freeing him so that he could legally get married.

In 1782, Toussaint Louverture married his second wife, Suzanne Simone-Baptiste, who is thought to have been his cousin or the daughter of his godfather Pierre-Baptiste.

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

In spite of this, Placide was adopted by Toussaint Louverture and raised as his own.

Toussaint Louverture would go onto have at least two sons with Suzanne named Isaac, born in 1784, and Saint-Jean, born in 1791.

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

Toussaint Louverture took up his old responsibilities of looking after the livestock and care of the horses.

Toussaint Louverture was nearly 48 years old at this time.

Toussaint Louverture gained some education from his godfather Pierre-Baptiste on the Breda plantation.

Toussaint Louverture received a degree of theological education from the Jesuit and Capuchin missionaries through his church attendance and devout Catholicism.

Many of the devout Catholic slaves and freedmen, including Toussaint Louverture, 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 Louverture did not openly take part in the earliest stages of the rebellion, as he spent the next few weeks sending his family to safety in Santo Domingo and helping his old overseer Bayon de Libertat.

Toussaint Louverture hid him and his family in a nearby wood, and brought them food from a nearby rebel camp.

Toussaint Louverture 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.

In 1791, Toussaint Louverture was involved in negotiations between rebel leaders and the French Governor, Blanchelande, for the release of their white prisoners and a return to work, in exchange for a ban on the use of whips, an extra non-working day per week, and the freedom of imprisoned leaders.

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

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

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

Unlike Jean-Francois and Bissaou, Toussaint Louverture refused to round up enslaved women and children to sell to the Spanish.

Toussaint Louverture is suspected to have been behind this attack, although was not present.

Toussaint Louverture made inroads against the British presence, but was unable to oust them from Saint-Marc.

Toussaint Louverture 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.

Villatte was thought to be somewhat racist toward black soldiers such as Toussaint Louverture and planned to ally with Andre Rigaud, a free man of color, after overthrowing French General Etienne Laveaux.

Toussaint Louverture was noted for opening the warehouses to the public, proving that they were empty of the chains that residents feared had been imported to prepare for a return to slavery.

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

Toussaint Louverture's letters show that he encouraged Laveaux to stand, and historians have speculated as to whether he was seeking to place a firm supporter in France or to remove a rival in power.

In summer 1797, Toussaint Louverture authorized the return of Bayon de Libertat, the former overseer of the Breda plantation, with whom he had shared a close relationship with ever since he was enslaved.

Sonthonax wrote to Toussaint Louverture threatening him with prosecution and ordering him to get de Libertat off the island.

Toussaint Louverture went over his head and wrote to the French Directoire directly for permission for de Libertat to stay.

Toussaint Louverture had several reasons to want to get rid of Sonthonax; officially he said that Sonthonax had tried to involve him in a plot to make Saint-Domingue independent, starting with a massacre of the whites of the island.

Toussaint Louverture knew that he had asserted his authority to such an extent that the French government might well suspect him of seeking independence.

For months, Toussaint Louverture was in sole command of French Saint-Domingue, except for a semi-autonomous state in the south, where general Andre Rigaud had rejected the authority of the third commission.

Toussaint Louverture's actions evoked a collective sense of worry among the European powers and the US, who feared that the success of the revolution would inspire slave revolts across the Caribbean, the South American colonies, and the southern United States.

Attempts by Hedouville to manage the situation made matters worse and Toussaint Louverture declined to help him.

Toussaint Louverture decided instead to work with Phillipe Roume, a member of the third commission who had been posted to the Spanish parts of the colony.

The terms of the treaty were similar to those already established with the British, but Toussaint Louverture continually rebuffed suggestions from either power that he should declare independence.

Toussaint Louverture accused Rigaud of trying to assassinate him to gain power over Saint-Domingue.

Rigaud claimed Toussaint Louverture was conspiring with the British to restore slavery.

Toussaint Louverture had other political reasons for eliminating Rigaud; only by controlling every port could he hope to prevent a landing of French troops if necessary.

Toussaint Louverture delegated most of the campaign to his lieutenant, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who became infamous, during and after the war, for massacring mulatto captives and civilians.

Toussaint Louverture was determined to proceed anyway and coerced Roume into supplying the necessary permission.

When Isaac Yeshurun Sasportas, a member of a prominent Sephardic Jewish family from Saint-Domingue, attempted to foment another slave revolt in neighboring British Jamaica, Toussaint Louverture leaked the plot to the British.

Toussaint Louverture brought it under French law, abolishing slavery and embarking on a program of modernization.

In March 1801, Toussaint Louverture appointed a constitutional assembly, composed chiefly of white planters, to draft a constitution for Saint-Domingue.

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

However, Toussaint Louverture had not explicitly declared Saint-Domingue's independence, acknowledging in Article 1 that it was a single colony of the French Empire.

Toussaint Louverture charged Colonel Charles Humbert Marie Vincent, who personally opposed the drafted constitution, with the task of delivering it to Napoleon.

Toussaint Louverture identified as a Frenchman and strove to convince Bonaparte of his loyalty.

Christophe burned Cap-Francais and retreated, but Paul Toussaint Louverture was tricked by a false letter into allowing the French to occupy Santo Domingo.

On 6 May 1802, Toussaint Louverture rode into Cap-Francais and negotiated an acknowledgement of Leclerc's authority in return for an amnesty for him and his remaining generals.

Toussaint Louverture was then forced to capitulate and placed under house arrest on his property in Ennery.

On 22 May 1802, after Dessalines learned that Toussaint Louverture had failed to instruct a local rebel leader to lay down his arms per the recent ceasefire agreement, he immediately wrote to Leclerc to denounce Toussaint Louverture's conduct as "extraordinary".

Toussaint Louverture's memoirs suggest that Brunet's troops had been provocative, leading Toussaint Louverture to seek a discussion with him.

Either way, Toussaint Louverture had a letter, in which Brunet described himself as a "sincere friend", to take with him to France.

The ships reached France on 2 July 1802 and, on 25 August, Toussaint Louverture was imprisoned at Fort-de-Joux in Doubs.

Toussaint Louverture died in prison on 7 April 1803 at the age of 59.

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

Toussaint Louverture would go on to have two formal Catholic weddings to both of his wives once freed.