LOUVERTURE, TOUSSAINT (aka François Dominique Toussaint Louverture and Toussaint Bréda, 20 May 1743– 7 April 1803), a former slave and leader of the Haitian Revolution, one of the first and most successful Black anti-colonial revolts in modern history. In the 1790s, Louverture led thousands of former slaves into a series of battles against French, Spanish, and English forces, changing sides when necessary to accomplish independence and ultimately overthrowing all colonizing Europeans to seize control of the entire island of what was then called Hispaniola.
Louverture was born François Dominique Toussaint on the Bréda plantation in Haut-de-Cap, Saint-Domingue. Because his parents had been members of the Benin aristocracy before they were sold into slavery (his father was enslaved as a prisoner of war), it is thought that Louverture was well-educated in his youth, as he often quoted Greek and European philosophy and his letters demonstrated fluency in both the French and Creole language. Louverture was freed in 1776 at the age of thirty-three. He became a landowner and, like all landowners of the time, relied on the system of slavery to amass his own fortune. It is believed that he owned one slave and leased about two dozen more.
When word of the French Revolution reached Saint-Domingue, Louverture was inspired. He left Bréda, discarded his plantation surname for Louverture (from the French l'ouverture, meaning “opening”), and initiated a series of changes intended to make the system of slavery more humane. Over time, as he moved up in the ranks of revolutionary leaders, he campaigned for the complete and radical abolition of slavery. By 1801, Louverture had unified his countrymen. He issued a constitution calling for Black autonomy and a sovereign Black state and declared himself governor for life. He submitted this document to Napoleon Bonaparte for ratification, and as a result, in 1802, he was seized by force and deported to France, where he died of pneumonia in prison.
Over the course of his life, Louverture inspired an entire populace, once entrenched in powerful systems of colonial oppression, to claim Black sovereignty. He developed a sense of Black consciousness that remains emblematic in the world today. Not only did his military genius and political acumen have a powerful impact on the White Atlantic world, but his achievements inspired other uprisings of enslaved people throughout the Black Atlantic. Louverture is a central revolutionary figure of African descent whose history, words, and actions crucially figure understandings of the “heroic” and have earned him the nickname “Father of Haiti.”