Toussaint Louverture

French First Republic state institutions National liberation and anti-colonial movements 1743–1803 ○ Died in prison

Former slave who united Saint-Domingue and became governor-general for life in 1801, the foremost leader of the Haitian Revolution

Born a slave on the Bréda plantation in 1743 and manumitted in the 1770s, he became a small planter who owned slaves. After the rising of 1791 he joined Biassou as secretary and lieutenant, entered Spanish service in 1793 and came over to the French in May 1794, after France had abolished slavery. Lieutenant governor in 1796, he expelled Sonthonax in 1797 and in 1798 signed the treaties with Maitland for the British withdrawal. He defeated Rigaud in the War of the South, occupied Santo Domingo in January 1801 and in July promulgated a constitution that made him governor-general for life, abolished slavery and bound cultivators to the plantations. He submitted to Leclerc in 1802, was arrested and deported, and died in the Fort de Joux on 7 April 1803.

Also known as: Toussaint L'Ouverture · Toussaint L’Ouverture · Toussaint Bréda · François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture