Statecraft & Independence
Peerless
Toussaint Louverture
1743 – 1803
Leader of the Haitian Revolution
Peerless is level 1 of 4 in the Haiti Hall of Fame: changed the field itself. Tell the country's story without them and the story breaks. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
A formerly enslaved coachman who became the commanding general of the Haitian Revolution, the only successful uprising of enslaved people to found a nation.
Toussaint rose to lead the revolutionary forces in Saint-Domingue in the 1790s, defeated Spanish and British armies, and in 1801 issued a constitution that abolished slavery and made him governor for life. Napoleon sent an expedition to restore French control; Toussaint was seized by deception in 1802 and died the following year in a prison in the Jura mountains.
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