Francois Dominique Toussaint L’Ouverture - For Liberty of Haiti

Black History Podcast

Toussaint L’Ouverture’s father was a man named Gaou Guinou, the son of the King of Allada, a west African kingdom located in present-day Benin. L’Ouverture’s father was captured during a war, and subsequently sold into slavery. L’Ouverture’s mother was named Pauline, Guinou's second wife, and L’Ouverture was the oldest child between the married couple.
L’Ouverture started life as an enslaved person, and ended as a free man.
The Haitian Revolution lasted from approximately 1791 to 1804; and essentially it was a slave revolt in Saint-Domingue that culminated in the elimination of slavery on the island, and thereupon established the Republic of Haiti. Through the course of recorded history, it is the first and only slave rebellion that led to the founding of a state and is generally considered to be the most successful slave rebellion to have ever occurred in all of the Americas. Beginning in 1789, the freed people of color were inspired by the French Revolution to expand their own rights, and seek complete freedom.
On August 29, 1793, L’Ouverture made a famous declaration before his countrymen at St. Domingue:
"Brothers and friends, I am Toussaint Louverture; perhaps my name has made itself known to you. I have undertaken vengeance. I want Liberty and Equality to reign in St. Domingue. I am working to make that happen. Unite yourselves to us, brothers and fight for the same cause."
By 1796, L’Ouverture was thee dominant force in the fight for freedom. By early 1801, L’Ouverture’s troops had captured Santo Domingo, the capital of the Spanish part of Hispaniola. With this capture, the entirety of the island was under L’Ouverture’s control.
Napoleon refused to respond, and eventually sent 20,000 of his men to Saint Domingue to restore French authority. L’Ouverture’s original plan was to scorch the earth, meaning he would burn the coastal cities and as much of the plains as possible and retreat with his troops into the mountains, generally inaccessible to those who were uninitiated, until such time as fever would destroy the French army. L'Ouverture's troops never fully gained their fighting strength, and eventually an amnesty was agreed upon.
Following the amnesty, L'Ouverture was captured and arrested by French troops, sent to a French prison and died on April 7, 1803.
Once he was deceased, Jean-Jacques Dessalines led the remainder of the Haitian rebellion until its completion, completing its defeat of the French in 1803.