A Colorful History

François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture (ca.1743-1803) was the leader of the Haitian Revolution, the only successful slave insurrection. In 1791, upset by the revoking of The Declaration of the Rights of Man, slaves all across Saint-Domingue (modern day Haiti) began to rebel. Although free and prosperous at the time of the revolts, Louverture abandoned this comfort in order to use his military genius to lead a slave army that would defeat the French, Spanish, and English. In 1793, the French voted to end slavery in their colonies, happy with this decision, Louverture agreed to expel the Spanish and British for the French, and managed to do so in a period of 7 days. When Napoleon came to power he reinstated slavery, which caused the blacks of Saint-Domingue to rebel once more. By 1803, having grown sick of these revolts, Napoleon declared he would recognize Saint-Domingue as independent, so long as Louverture promised to retreat from public life afterwards. When it came time for them to meet for negotiations, Napoleon broke his deal and had Louverture arrested; he would die in jail. The damage had already been done though, and the rebellions still raged on under the command of his 1^st lieutenant Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and 6 months later Napoleon would grant them their freedom, birthing the first free black Republic.