Toussaint Louverture - Revision history

Stumax: /* Toussaint Louverture as a freed slave */ restored a snippet of text

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‎Toussaint Louverture as a freed slave: restored a snippet of text

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Doe: added For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, Ntozake Shange quote

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added For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, Ntozake Shange quote

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 ===Toussaint Louverture as a freed slave===
-At age 33, Toussaint was given his freedom. Toussaint married [[Suzanne Simone Baptiste Louverture]] and had two children with her. A few years later, he would rent a plot of land, to which were attached 13 slaves. Toussaint owned at least one slave himself, and would later give him his drreway have been involved in the planning of the [[Boukman]] Rebellion of [[1791]], but what is certain is that he joined the army officially very shortly after the initial revolt.  First working as a doctor, Toussaint soon became a military commander, and his skill in battle would become legendary.  He was both feared and respected by allies and enemies alike.  Toussaint would maintain the highest moral and ethical standards throughout his campaigns.
+At age 33, Toussaint was given his freedom. Toussaint married [[Suzanne Simone Baptiste Louverture]] and had two children with her. A few years later, he would rent a plot of land, to which were attached 13 slaves. Toussaint owned at least one slave himself, and would later give him his freedom.
 Toussaint was not immune to the racial pressures of his day, though he did more than most in his time to promote equality.  Indeed, he took extraordinary measures throughout his military and political life to treat all races equally and fairly, and the trust this engendered helped him solidify his control of the colony.  However, when a regiment of [[mulattos]] defected to the enemy, causing him to lose a battle with the British at [[St. Marc]], he vowed to never truly trust them again.

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-{| cellspacing="3"
+{| cellspacing="2"
 |- valign="top"
-|width="60%" style="border:1px solid #ffc9c9;padding:1em;padding-top:0.5em; color: black;"|
+|width="90%" style="border:1px solid #ffc9c9;padding:0.5em;padding-top:0.5em; color: brown;"|
 ::'''''...TOUSSAINT L’OUVERTURE<br>
 ::waz the beginning uv reality for me<br>
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 ::waz disqualified <br>
-::cuz Toussaint<br>
+:::cuz Toussaint<br>
-::belonged in the ADULT READING ROOM<br>
+::::belonged in the ADULT READING ROOM<br>
-::& I cried<br>
+:::::& I cried<br>
 ::& carried dead Toussaint home in the book<br>
 ::he was dead & livin to me<br>

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 Born into slavery in 1743, Toussaint grew up on [[Bréda Plantation]],  near [[Le Cap]] in the north of Saint-Domingue.  As a boy, he was called ''Fatras Bâton'', or "''Walking Stick''".  Though skinny and undersized, he was strong and energetic.  He had a natural affinity for animals and became a master horseman.  He would also develop a keen knowledge of horticulture.  There exists no definitive portrait of Toussaint, but he is widely reported to have been far from handsome, yet possessing of an irresistible charisma.
 There is a legend that Toussaint's father was Gaou-Ginou, an African chieftan of the Arada tribe from Dahomey (the current Bénin), and Toussaint is reported to have spoken at least some Aradas.  However, it is probable that, as Toussaint claimed, his father was the man who many have written was his godfather, Pierre Baptiste Simon, an educated black slave.  Regardless, Toussaint was blessed with an informal education and a kind master, leaving him somewhat sheltered from the horrific treatment that most black slaves received in Saint-Domingue.
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 ==References==
 * {{Avengers of the New World}}
 * {{Haitian Revolutionary Studies}}
 * {{The Black Jacobins}}
 * {{Citizen Toussaint}}
 * {{This Gilded African}}
 * {{Vie de Toussaint Louverture}}
 * Coopération interuniversitaire Haïti-Grenoble-Chambéry: [http://web.upmf-grenoble.fr/Haiti/Toussaint.htm Toussaint Louverture 1743 - 1803] (French online biographical text)

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 ==External links==
-*[http://www.campmandingue.com/Architecture%20coloniale.htm Toussaint L'Ouverture High School for Arts & Social Justice] - Public school in Delray Beach Florida.
+*[http://www.toussaintlouverture.org/ Toussaint L'Ouverture High School for Arts & Social Justice] - Public school in Delray Beach Florida.
 ===Images===

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 ==External links==
 ===Images===
 * PBS: [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3h326.html Africans in America: Toussaint Louverture] - Short text on images of Toussaint.

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 |style="font-size:90%;"width="40%" bgcolor="#f0f0ff" style="border:1px solid #c6c9ff;padding:1em;padding-top:0.5em; color: black;"|
-[[image:t_louverture_portrait.jpg|right|thumb|115px|Lithograph by Maurin after a lost earlier drawing (1838).]]  '''What did Toussaint look like?'''
+[[image:t_louverture_portrait.jpg|left|thumb|115px|Lithograph by Maurin after a lost earlier drawing (1838).]]  '''What did Toussaint look like?'''
 There are no definitive, surviving portraits of Toussaint, so no one knows for sure.  Most who described him say he was not a handsome man, but had a powerful presence.  Marcus Rainsford, for one, observed:  ""He is a perfect black ... of a venerable appearance, but possessed of uncommon discernment. ... He wears as a uniform, a kind of blue spencer, with a large red cape falling over his shoulders, and red cuffs with eight rows of lace on his arms, and a pair of large gold epaulettes thrown back on his shoulders; a scarlet waiscoat, pantaloons and half-boots; a round hat with a red feather and national cockade; and an extreme large sward is suspended from his side."

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 * "The [French Directory's Agent in [[Saint Domingue]] does nothing at present but what he is desired to do.  The whole machine of Government, both civil and military, is regulated and guided by the General-in-Chief." ''- [[Edward Stevens]], Consul General of the United States of America to Saint Domingue, in a dispatch to General [[Thomas Maitland]], Commander in Chief of the British Expeditionary Force to [[Saint Domingue]]. ([[Korngold]], p. ix)''
-* "He says a thousand rosaries a day in order to deceive everyone the better." ''- Georges Biassou ([[Parkinson]], p. 77)''
+* "He says a thousand rosaries a day in order to deceive everyone the better." ''- [[Georges Biassou]] ([[Parkinson]], p. 77)''
 * "Never did one know where he was, nor what he was doing, if he was leaving, if he was staying, where he was going, from where he was coming." - ''Pamphile Lacroix (Parkinson, p. 84)''

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 ===Toussaint Louverture is betrayed by the French===
-In [[1802]], [[Napoleon Bonaparte]] sent his brother-in-law General [[Leclerc]] with an expedition of 20,000 soldiers and secret orders to retake control of the colony and to reinstitute slavery.  Toussaint's rebel forces put up fierce resistance, ultimately causing Napoleon to commit 40,000 additional troops.  Eventually, though, critical hesitations along with defections and betrayals within his officer corps led to Toussaint's surrender.  Though allowed to retire from the field and return to civilian life, Toussaint was eventually betrayed, kidnapped, and taken to a prison in the French Alps. Upon leaving Saint-Domingue, Toussaint remarked to Daniel Savary, a French captain, : "''In overthrowing me, you have cut down in [[Saint-Domingue]] only the trunk of the tree of liberty. It will spring up again by the roots, for they are numerous.''" He never saw his country again.
+[[image:t_louverture_death_cert.jpg|left|thumb|280px|Death certificate of Toussaint Louverture.]]In [[1802]], [[Napoleon Bonaparte]] sent his brother-in-law General [[Leclerc]] with an expedition of 20,000 soldiers and secret orders to retake control of the colony and to reinstitute slavery.  Toussaint's rebel forces put up fierce resistance, ultimately causing Napoleon to commit 40,000 additional troops.  Eventually, though, critical hesitations along with defections and betrayals within his officer corps led to Toussaint's surrender.  Though allowed to retire from the field and return to civilian life, Toussaint was eventually betrayed, kidnapped, and taken to a prison in the French Alps. Upon leaving Saint-Domingue, Toussaint remarked to Daniel Savary, a French captain, : "''In overthrowing me, you have cut down in [[Saint-Domingue]] only the trunk of the tree of liberty. It will spring up again by the roots, for they are numerous.''" He never saw his country again.
 Toussaint Louverture died in [[Fort de Joux]] on [[April 7]], [[1803]], unaware that his army would rally behind the leadership of his former general, [[Jean Jacques Dessalines]], to win the colony's independence for good. After many hard-fought battles &ndash; the last of which was the [[Battle of Vertières]] &ndash; the newly liberated [[Haiti]] declared independence on [[January 1]], [[1804]].