Late 18th-Century Saint Domingue in the Caribbean – now known as Haiti – was one of the richest countries in the world. Known as ‘the pearl of the Antilles’, its wealth was built almost entirely on slavery. Around half a million enslaved Africans were transported to the French colony to work on the sugar plantations.
Toussaint L’Ouverture was destined to see out his days within this brutal system, but his skills as a negotiator and communicator saw him rise to the forefront of the resistance movement on the island. A wily and charismatic operator, he galvanised his fellow countrymen and women to lead history’s first and only successful slave uprising.
Diverging from French colonial rule brought him to the attention of Napoleon Bonaparte, who sent a large fleet to re-establish slavery on Saint Domingue. The expedition ended with Toussaint’s capture and exile to France, where he died in a cold prison cell in 1803. But his generals meanwhile carried on the struggle to uphold Toussaint’s opposition to slavery, which became the basis for the new independent state of Haiti.
Joining Rajan Datar to explore this complex figure are Marlene L Daut, Professor of African Diaspora Studies in the Carter G. Woodson Institute at the University of Virginia, and the author of Tropics of Haiti: Race and the Literary History of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World, 1789-1865; Weibert Arthus, the Haitian ambassador to Canada, who’s also published widely on Haitian diplomacy and history; and Sudhir Hazareesingh, professor in politics at Balliol College, Oxford. His biography Black Spartacus: The epic life of Toussaint Louverture was published in 2020.
Producer: Fiona Clampin
(Image: Toussaint L'Ouverture painted on the body of a tap-tap bus operating in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Credit: Jan Sochor/Getty Images)