What do you think?
Rate this book
O Maior Revolucionário das Américas: a vida épica de Toussaint Louverture
Toussaint Louverture, a figura mais emblemática da Revolução Haitiana, dedicou sua vida à construção de uma sociedade baseada na igualdade. Autodidata que se tornou erudito e general do exército francês, Toussaint liderou a imensa revolta de escravizados que libertou a colônia franco-caribenha de Saint-Domingue em 1791 – e culminou com a proclamação da primeira república negra livre e independente no mundo. Foi o guia de seu povo, comandante do exército republicano e, por fim, seu governador.
Em O maior revolucionário das Américas, Sudhir Hazareesingh acompanha cada passo da jornada deste personagem memorável: desde seus triunfos contra as tropas francesas, espanholas e britânicas até sua ousada promulgação de uma Constituição autônoma. Toussaint se tornou um farol para os escravizados do Atlântico e para muitas gerações de progressistas republicanos, tendo inspirado figuras como Frederick Douglass, movimentos anticoloniais e antirracistas e as ideias seminais de negritude do século XX.
Em O maior revolucionário das Américas, Sudhir Hazareesingh acompanha cada passo da jornada deste personagem memorável: desde seus triunfos contra as tropas francesas, espanholas e britânicas até sua ousada promulgação de uma Constituição autônoma. Toussaint se tornou um farol para os escravizados do Atlântico e para muitas gerações de progressistas republicanos, tendo inspirado figuras como Frederick Douglass, movimentos anticoloniais e antirracistas e as ideias seminais de negritude do século XX.
600 pages, Paperback
First published September 3, 2020
283 people are currently reading
5683 people want to read
About the author
Sudhir Hazareesingh
27 books34 followersSudhir Hazareesingh FBA is a British-Mauritian historian. He has been a fellow and Tutor in Politics at Balliol College, Oxford since 1990. Most of his work relates to modern political history from 1850; including the history of contemporary France as well as Napoleon, the Republic and Charles de Gaulle.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 191 reviews
June 22, 2024
“Toussaint [Louverture] embodied the many facets of Saint-Domingue’s revolution by confronting the dominant forces of his age – slavery, settler colonialism, imperial domination, racial hierarchy, and European cultural supremacy – and bending them to his will. Through his dynamism he acquired some striking epithets. His republican friends hailed him as the ‘Black Spartacus,’ the modern incarnation of the legendary gladiator who led his fellow slaves against the Roman Republic; his miraculous appearance in Saint-Domingue had, in the words of one of his admirers, ‘transformed the chaos of destruction into the seeds of new life.’ He was also described as the father of the blacks, the black son of the French Revolution, the black George Washington… By the early nineteenth century, Philadelphia’s newspapers were referring to him as ‘the celebrated African chief.’ Even liberal opinion in England was moved by the sight of such an uncommon hero: an article in the London Gazette in 1798 hailed Toussaint as a…proud representative of the ‘Black race whom the Christian world in their infamy have been accustomed to degrade.’ In 1802, the London Annual Register described him as ‘the major public figure of the year, and a great man…’”
- Sudhir Hazareesingh, Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture
Here is a short list of things that are difficult to do: raise an army; train an army; feed and clothe an army; devise military strategy, operations, and tactics; fight battles; win battles; form alliances; choose the right moment to dump those alliances; form new alliances; collect taxes; govern people; engage in diplomatic relations with imperial powers; and write a constitution.
That Toussaint Louverture did all these things – and did them remarkably well – is exceptional in and of itself. That he did all these things after having been born a slave in the French colony of Saint-Domingue almost defies belief.
Yet that is essentially the arc of Louverture’s life, which is ably captured in Sudhir Hazareesingh’s deeply researched, exceptionally detailed, passionately argued, but sometimes slow-paced Black Spartacus.
***
It’s hard to briefly summarize Louverture’s existence, because it is crowded, complicated, and marked by the controversies attendant to great leaders, exacerbated by heated opinions – both contemporary and modern – and often aggravated by a lack of documentary sources.
As Hazareesingh wryly notes in the first chapter, we can all agree that Toussaint was born. Everything after is open for debate. Toussaint came of age on the Breda plantation, an enslaved person trained to be a coachman. In the grim hierarchy of slavery, this was a relatively high position, and kept him away from the stark existence of those forced to toil in the sugar-cane fields. Eventually, Toussaint was emancipated, and even came to own slaves himself.
Toussaint did not step onto the pages of history until his late forties, when the French Revolution upended Europe, and much of the rest of the world as well. With the fall of the Bourbons, the Haitian Revolution began. Initially, Toussaint allied himself with the Spanish of Santo Domingo – I had only minor fits trying to keep Saint-Domingue and Santo Domingo straight – who were fighting the French. Later, he opportunistically switched to the side of France’s Republicans when they abolished slavery. Working assiduously – Hazareesingh notes he was an austere man, who rarely slept, and always kept on the move – Toussaint came to dominate his rivals, and eventually became Governor-General of Saint-Domingue. In 1801, he devised a constitution that enshrined his leadership role for life. Around the same time he came into conflict with Napoleon Bonaparte, who plotted Toussaint’s downfall, aided by 40,000 troops he sent to the island.
***
Broadly speaking, Hazareesingh presents this material chronologically. However, this is not a straight narrative history. There are simply too many evidentiary gaps and competing versions to lay out a seamless version of events. Instead, Hazareesingh has to move slowly, weighing surviving letters and reports, trying to corroborate oral histories and local legends, and utilizing his own insights into the man.
Generally, this is effective, due to the prodigiousness of Hazareesingh’s efforts. He has scoured the world’s repositories for any scraps of Toussaint’s life, and does a fine job stitching together a lot of thin threads into something stronger. Hazareesingh also is careful to let us know what is there, what is not, and when he is speculating. Alas, as he notes early on, the letters to Toussaint’s many mistresses have been destroyed, bricking off what might have been an excellent window into his personal life.
Unfortunately, the paucity of the historical record often harms the storytelling. For example, Toussaint fought in a lot of battles. However, as Hazareesingh admits, we know extremely little about how these contests unfolded. This precludes any fully developed set-pieces.
***
Hazareesingh is an unabashed admirer of Toussaint. He finds the slave-turned-general-turned-governor to be an enlightened political philosopher who embraced French Republican virtues, but also borrowed from African, Creole, and Catholic traditions. In a colony built upon the framework of racial supremacy – with whites, blacks, and mixed raced persons of color all given defined positions – Toussaint worked to build a workable multiracial, multicultural society.
There are times when Hazareesingh falls into the biographer’s trap of apologizing for his subject’s flaws, or working too hard to explain the inexplicable. Hazareesingh occasionally soft peddles Toussaint’s more questionable decisions in ways that are not entirely satisfactory.
For instance, Toussaint fought extremely hard for the eradication of slavery. His 1801 constitution enshrined that notion. Nevertheless, Toussaint’s policies essentially bound workers to their plantations, though they were paid. While this might not technically be slavery, it doesn’t exactly sound like freedom either. Obviously, Toussaint had to make a lot of hard, pragmatic choices, especially given the uniquely difficulty situation he faced, but Hazareesingh tends to glide over these rough patches.
***
Black Spartacus took me a while to finish. This pacing issue – as I mentioned up top – is a byproduct of Hazareesingh’s work sifting through the scraps of reliable information that exist about Toussaint, and not a reflection of his writing. For the most part, this is very readable, here and now demonstrating true verve.
That said, if we were to imagine this book as an educational course, it leans towards graduate level rather than Toussaint 101. In his lengthy introduction, for example, Hazareesingh spends an inordinate amount of time comparing his work to dozens of other scholarly volumes that – I’m assuming – few readers will have read. As Black Spartacus unfolds, Hazareesingh sticks close to Toussaint, giving us his life, but not his times. Take the French Revolution. Toussaint rose to fame by exploiting the aftershocks of this tumultuous event. Yet Hazareesingh spends very little time on the Revolution itself, meaning that you need to have done your prerequisites.
***
Related to the issue of context, I wish Hazareesingh had spent a little more time discussing Saint-Dominque/Haiti in the aftermath of Toussaint’s death. He closes Black Spartacus with a long discussion on Toussaint’s place in historical memory, and especially his resonance to black people around the globe. This section is insightful, and movingly demonstrates Hazareesingh’s own affinity for Toussaint. Yet he barely touches upon what became of his grand project.
In particular, I think this would have benefited from a comparison of Toussaint with his successor, Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Dessalines prevailed in a brutal war waged by General Charles Leclerc, who advocated an exterminatory war, and took actions such as drowning hundreds of captured black colonial troops. In response, Dessalines crowned himself Emperor and unleashed the so-called “Haitian Massacre” of 1804, killing many of the Europeans who remained in the former colony. Most historians abhor a counterfactual, yet such a hypothetical might have clarified Toussaint’s legacy even further.
***
Toussaint Louverture did not live long enough to fulfill his aspirations. This does not detract from his extraordinary life in the least. We talk of the concept of the “self-made” person, yet this does not come close to describing his reality. Born as property, he became a leader, not simply of a revolt, but a revolution. He did not work merely to overthrow the old order, but provided a grand vision for a new one.
- Sudhir Hazareesingh, Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture
Here is a short list of things that are difficult to do: raise an army; train an army; feed and clothe an army; devise military strategy, operations, and tactics; fight battles; win battles; form alliances; choose the right moment to dump those alliances; form new alliances; collect taxes; govern people; engage in diplomatic relations with imperial powers; and write a constitution.
That Toussaint Louverture did all these things – and did them remarkably well – is exceptional in and of itself. That he did all these things after having been born a slave in the French colony of Saint-Domingue almost defies belief.
Yet that is essentially the arc of Louverture’s life, which is ably captured in Sudhir Hazareesingh’s deeply researched, exceptionally detailed, passionately argued, but sometimes slow-paced Black Spartacus.
***
It’s hard to briefly summarize Louverture’s existence, because it is crowded, complicated, and marked by the controversies attendant to great leaders, exacerbated by heated opinions – both contemporary and modern – and often aggravated by a lack of documentary sources.
As Hazareesingh wryly notes in the first chapter, we can all agree that Toussaint was born. Everything after is open for debate. Toussaint came of age on the Breda plantation, an enslaved person trained to be a coachman. In the grim hierarchy of slavery, this was a relatively high position, and kept him away from the stark existence of those forced to toil in the sugar-cane fields. Eventually, Toussaint was emancipated, and even came to own slaves himself.
Toussaint did not step onto the pages of history until his late forties, when the French Revolution upended Europe, and much of the rest of the world as well. With the fall of the Bourbons, the Haitian Revolution began. Initially, Toussaint allied himself with the Spanish of Santo Domingo – I had only minor fits trying to keep Saint-Domingue and Santo Domingo straight – who were fighting the French. Later, he opportunistically switched to the side of France’s Republicans when they abolished slavery. Working assiduously – Hazareesingh notes he was an austere man, who rarely slept, and always kept on the move – Toussaint came to dominate his rivals, and eventually became Governor-General of Saint-Domingue. In 1801, he devised a constitution that enshrined his leadership role for life. Around the same time he came into conflict with Napoleon Bonaparte, who plotted Toussaint’s downfall, aided by 40,000 troops he sent to the island.
***
Broadly speaking, Hazareesingh presents this material chronologically. However, this is not a straight narrative history. There are simply too many evidentiary gaps and competing versions to lay out a seamless version of events. Instead, Hazareesingh has to move slowly, weighing surviving letters and reports, trying to corroborate oral histories and local legends, and utilizing his own insights into the man.
Generally, this is effective, due to the prodigiousness of Hazareesingh’s efforts. He has scoured the world’s repositories for any scraps of Toussaint’s life, and does a fine job stitching together a lot of thin threads into something stronger. Hazareesingh also is careful to let us know what is there, what is not, and when he is speculating. Alas, as he notes early on, the letters to Toussaint’s many mistresses have been destroyed, bricking off what might have been an excellent window into his personal life.
Unfortunately, the paucity of the historical record often harms the storytelling. For example, Toussaint fought in a lot of battles. However, as Hazareesingh admits, we know extremely little about how these contests unfolded. This precludes any fully developed set-pieces.
***
Hazareesingh is an unabashed admirer of Toussaint. He finds the slave-turned-general-turned-governor to be an enlightened political philosopher who embraced French Republican virtues, but also borrowed from African, Creole, and Catholic traditions. In a colony built upon the framework of racial supremacy – with whites, blacks, and mixed raced persons of color all given defined positions – Toussaint worked to build a workable multiracial, multicultural society.
There are times when Hazareesingh falls into the biographer’s trap of apologizing for his subject’s flaws, or working too hard to explain the inexplicable. Hazareesingh occasionally soft peddles Toussaint’s more questionable decisions in ways that are not entirely satisfactory.
For instance, Toussaint fought extremely hard for the eradication of slavery. His 1801 constitution enshrined that notion. Nevertheless, Toussaint’s policies essentially bound workers to their plantations, though they were paid. While this might not technically be slavery, it doesn’t exactly sound like freedom either. Obviously, Toussaint had to make a lot of hard, pragmatic choices, especially given the uniquely difficulty situation he faced, but Hazareesingh tends to glide over these rough patches.
***
Black Spartacus took me a while to finish. This pacing issue – as I mentioned up top – is a byproduct of Hazareesingh’s work sifting through the scraps of reliable information that exist about Toussaint, and not a reflection of his writing. For the most part, this is very readable, here and now demonstrating true verve.
That said, if we were to imagine this book as an educational course, it leans towards graduate level rather than Toussaint 101. In his lengthy introduction, for example, Hazareesingh spends an inordinate amount of time comparing his work to dozens of other scholarly volumes that – I’m assuming – few readers will have read. As Black Spartacus unfolds, Hazareesingh sticks close to Toussaint, giving us his life, but not his times. Take the French Revolution. Toussaint rose to fame by exploiting the aftershocks of this tumultuous event. Yet Hazareesingh spends very little time on the Revolution itself, meaning that you need to have done your prerequisites.
***
Related to the issue of context, I wish Hazareesingh had spent a little more time discussing Saint-Dominque/Haiti in the aftermath of Toussaint’s death. He closes Black Spartacus with a long discussion on Toussaint’s place in historical memory, and especially his resonance to black people around the globe. This section is insightful, and movingly demonstrates Hazareesingh’s own affinity for Toussaint. Yet he barely touches upon what became of his grand project.
In particular, I think this would have benefited from a comparison of Toussaint with his successor, Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Dessalines prevailed in a brutal war waged by General Charles Leclerc, who advocated an exterminatory war, and took actions such as drowning hundreds of captured black colonial troops. In response, Dessalines crowned himself Emperor and unleashed the so-called “Haitian Massacre” of 1804, killing many of the Europeans who remained in the former colony. Most historians abhor a counterfactual, yet such a hypothetical might have clarified Toussaint’s legacy even further.
***
Toussaint Louverture did not live long enough to fulfill his aspirations. This does not detract from his extraordinary life in the least. We talk of the concept of the “self-made” person, yet this does not come close to describing his reality. Born as property, he became a leader, not simply of a revolt, but a revolution. He did not work merely to overthrow the old order, but provided a grand vision for a new one.
May 27, 2021
I always look forward to seeing what books have been listed for the annual Wolfson History Prize which consistently highlights quality new nonfiction. Since its publication I've had my eye on reading Sudhir Hazareesingh's “Black Spartacus” because of its strikingly beautiful cover and a curiosity about its subject of Toussaint Louverture, a man born into slavery who became a military and political leader of The Haitian Revolution which occurred in the late 18th century. So its listing on this year's prize gave me the perfect excuse to dive into this fascinating and authoritative biography of a man who Hazareesingh dubs “the first black superhero of the modern age”. Indeed, Louverture appeared to have almost superhuman powers as the author describes how this was a man who consistently subsisted on only a few hours of sleep and consumed a meagre amount of food yet led battles from the front and utilized his considerable intelligence to strategize methods to build a Haiti liberated from slavery. This book is a fascinating account about his spectacular rise to power, the enormous challenges he faced, the competing myths surrounding him and his enduring legacy as a black leader with strong libertarian values. Like Spartacus, Louverture used his strength, intelligence and cunning to rise out of his oppressed origins and galvanize his brethren to follow.
Read my full review of Black Spartacus by Sudhir Hazareesingh on LonesomeReader
Read my full review of Black Spartacus by Sudhir Hazareesingh on LonesomeReader
December 20, 2021
This is clearly meticulously researched, has a heroic protagonist, is set in a fascinating period in history and should be a triumph.
Instead, for the casual reader its a hard slog - the author's style is academic and the book reads like a series of papers destined to argue a point of historical correctness for a peer group.
If you fall into that group this one's for you, but large tracts of this felt unnavigable and ultimately it bored me.
Instead, for the casual reader its a hard slog - the author's style is academic and the book reads like a series of papers destined to argue a point of historical correctness for a peer group.
If you fall into that group this one's for you, but large tracts of this felt unnavigable and ultimately it bored me.
September 2, 2020
I was curious to read this book because, although I was vaguely aware of Toussaint as a cult figure among Haitian people as the founder of their free nation, I really didn't know much else. Add that to the very cool title and front cover and I was sold.
As a route to gaining insight into Toussaint's approach to battle and strategy this book is excellent, it is packed with sources and references. I appreciated the inclusion of artwork, posters and newspaper clippings which brought the text to life. Unfortunately not much is known about the early life of Toussaint, even the year of his birth is in contention and so understandably the focus of this book is on his time as a general and leader of the people of Saint Domingue, which eventually became modern day Haiti following the slave revolt of 1791. While I found Toussiant's war victories interesting to read about, I was disappointed there wasn't more about his personal life. Call me nosy but those are the things that really interest me, there was minimal reference to his wife, children and mistresses. Toussaint didn't seem to have many confidantes or friends either which made it hard to connect with him as a person and get to know him on a deeper level.
Hazareesingh's writing style is quite academic and while the language is clear and easy to read, I did not always find it entertaining or compelling. As the book went on, I struggled to focus on what seemed to be unending descriptions of battles and negotiation strategies. I suspect I would have benefited from reading the book more slowly alongside other lighter works to break it up a bit as it was dense in some parts.
What I can't fault Hazareesingh on is his research, he did the work no question! He even manages to dispel some myths about Toussaint. Rather than describing him as a blood-thirsty rebel who sought freedom for himself and his people at any cost, we see that Toussaint was ultimately a man of principle who valued rules and wanted to gain freedom through the correct channels. He did not gain respect from his people through tyranny but rather by unifying them under a shared purpose and giving them a sense of self worth. Toussaint wanted to work alongside the French not in opposition to them and everything he did had the underlying objective of proving to his white counterparts that black people were capable of behaving honourably and ruling themselves. Towards the end of the book, Hazareesingh demonstrates how Toussaint has influenced modern art and literature; it was fascinating to see how a figure who has been dead for over 200 years still has the power to inspire.
If like me you would like to know more about Toussiant and how he came to hold his current mythical status, this book would be a great place to start and will no doubt act as a springboard to seek out more information on this exceptional historical figure. `
As a route to gaining insight into Toussaint's approach to battle and strategy this book is excellent, it is packed with sources and references. I appreciated the inclusion of artwork, posters and newspaper clippings which brought the text to life. Unfortunately not much is known about the early life of Toussaint, even the year of his birth is in contention and so understandably the focus of this book is on his time as a general and leader of the people of Saint Domingue, which eventually became modern day Haiti following the slave revolt of 1791. While I found Toussiant's war victories interesting to read about, I was disappointed there wasn't more about his personal life. Call me nosy but those are the things that really interest me, there was minimal reference to his wife, children and mistresses. Toussaint didn't seem to have many confidantes or friends either which made it hard to connect with him as a person and get to know him on a deeper level.
Hazareesingh's writing style is quite academic and while the language is clear and easy to read, I did not always find it entertaining or compelling. As the book went on, I struggled to focus on what seemed to be unending descriptions of battles and negotiation strategies. I suspect I would have benefited from reading the book more slowly alongside other lighter works to break it up a bit as it was dense in some parts.
What I can't fault Hazareesingh on is his research, he did the work no question! He even manages to dispel some myths about Toussaint. Rather than describing him as a blood-thirsty rebel who sought freedom for himself and his people at any cost, we see that Toussaint was ultimately a man of principle who valued rules and wanted to gain freedom through the correct channels. He did not gain respect from his people through tyranny but rather by unifying them under a shared purpose and giving them a sense of self worth. Toussaint wanted to work alongside the French not in opposition to them and everything he did had the underlying objective of proving to his white counterparts that black people were capable of behaving honourably and ruling themselves. Towards the end of the book, Hazareesingh demonstrates how Toussaint has influenced modern art and literature; it was fascinating to see how a figure who has been dead for over 200 years still has the power to inspire.
If like me you would like to know more about Toussiant and how he came to hold his current mythical status, this book would be a great place to start and will no doubt act as a springboard to seek out more information on this exceptional historical figure. `
September 2, 2020
I as completely enthralled by this biography, I knew very little going in about Toussaint, but by the end , this book made me feel really knowledgeable, it also goes into great depth without losing any of your interest. The author has the skill to be detailed, but keep you interested even though it is largely academic. I found the inclusion of newspaper clippings, artist impressions and posters etc to be really useful, after all we are all visual beings, even avid readers and I feel it adds to the history. Sudhir is succinct, to the point and writes in plain English, clear and understandable, a completely accessible style. A great book to learn about a great man whose influence was and is felt long after his death.
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion
November 15, 2020
A comprehensive and authoritative biography of Toussaint Louverture, meticulously researched and admirably detailed, an important book indeed, but I must admit I found all the details somewhat overwhelming. Perhaps this is a work more for serious history scholars rather than the general reader, and thus I found myself, whilst reading it, admiring and appreciative, but not actually engaged. However, I learnt a lot, and that’s definitely a good thing.
December 24, 2021
Someone pls tweet Lin Manuel Miranda and ask him to do a musical called LOUVERTURE!!
Musicals aside, this was a super in-depth, well researched account of Toussaint’s life. If, like me, you are super dumb about the Haitian revolution and its key players, this is a great starting place (heavy focus on Toussaint as name would suggest...). Starting from birth to his eventual capture by the pesky French, the book charts his key accomplishments, relationships and negotiations with imperial powers of the day.
As a figure who is mythicised; revered as a freedom fighter and so firmly entrenched in Caribbean identity on the one side; a bloodthirsty* traitor by the old imperialist colonial powers (France, U.K. u know who u are) it was super interesting to read a book so committed to exploring all aspects - good and bad - of Toussaint’s multifaceted identity, his political strategy, his religious zeal and above all his belief in unity and collaboration (even with colonial France). Every human has complicated, 3-dimensional belief systems, and for all his flaws (dubious views on marriage; some serious internalised oppression/thoughts on blackness/whiteness, bumming France hard) there is no doubt his unequivocal belief in the freedom for his people and ultimately justice is something to be admired and sought.
Massively recommend this book if u wanna develop a crush on the military heroes of the Haitian revolution (Dessalines wya) and ofc to learn about my man Touissant. Quite dense and academically factual (read: dry) in parts, but still engaging. Would have liked to see more exploration of his relationships with wife(s) and children, because he sounds like a stand-up family guy.
“By striking me you have cut the tree of black liberty in Saint-Domingue. But it will spring back up from its roots, for they are many and deep.”
*also no shade to history teachers but Bonaparte is REVERED by history teachers across the land and he sounds like a nasty ass man!!!!!????? Toussaint doesn’t get so much as a whisper but we all cite Bonaparte like he’s history’s Stephen Fry!???? No sir smells like old fashioned racism to me.
Musicals aside, this was a super in-depth, well researched account of Toussaint’s life. If, like me, you are super dumb about the Haitian revolution and its key players, this is a great starting place (heavy focus on Toussaint as name would suggest...). Starting from birth to his eventual capture by the pesky French, the book charts his key accomplishments, relationships and negotiations with imperial powers of the day.
As a figure who is mythicised; revered as a freedom fighter and so firmly entrenched in Caribbean identity on the one side; a bloodthirsty* traitor by the old imperialist colonial powers (France, U.K. u know who u are) it was super interesting to read a book so committed to exploring all aspects - good and bad - of Toussaint’s multifaceted identity, his political strategy, his religious zeal and above all his belief in unity and collaboration (even with colonial France). Every human has complicated, 3-dimensional belief systems, and for all his flaws (dubious views on marriage; some serious internalised oppression/thoughts on blackness/whiteness, bumming France hard) there is no doubt his unequivocal belief in the freedom for his people and ultimately justice is something to be admired and sought.
Massively recommend this book if u wanna develop a crush on the military heroes of the Haitian revolution (Dessalines wya) and ofc to learn about my man Touissant. Quite dense and academically factual (read: dry) in parts, but still engaging. Would have liked to see more exploration of his relationships with wife(s) and children, because he sounds like a stand-up family guy.
“By striking me you have cut the tree of black liberty in Saint-Domingue. But it will spring back up from its roots, for they are many and deep.”
*also no shade to history teachers but Bonaparte is REVERED by history teachers across the land and he sounds like a nasty ass man!!!!!????? Toussaint doesn’t get so much as a whisper but we all cite Bonaparte like he’s history’s Stephen Fry!???? No sir smells like old fashioned racism to me.
January 17, 2021
A phenomenally researched book, the wealth and granularity of historical detail about Toussaint Louverture and Haitian Revolution (Saint Domingue then) in the 1790s is incredible, as is its assessment of Toussaint's legacy and influence on radical anti-slavery movements throughout the 19th and 20th century.
The connections drawn in the last two chapters of the book - and Haiti's inspiration to figures as diverse as Frederick Douglass and Fidel Castro - was particularly moving.
The connections drawn in the last two chapters of the book - and Haiti's inspiration to figures as diverse as Frederick Douglass and Fidel Castro - was particularly moving.
January 31, 2021
Having read several works on Toussaint L'Ouverture and the Haitian Revolution, it is interesting that I found that each provides a slightly different perspective and in some cases, uncovers new information about the man and the events he was so much a part of. That is true of this book by Suhir Hazareesingh, which not only covers the significant events of the revolution but looks at L'Ouverture, the man.
In the chapter "A Universal Hero", the writer focuses on L'Ouverture's enduring legacy and the impact the revolution had in the Caribbean, America's and beyond. Rebellions arose in the Caribbean, Central and South America with the events in Saint-Dominique as a guiding light. The United Irishman of the same time used Saint-Dominique's revolutionary example in what they saw as a common cause in Ireland's republican challenge to British rule. Abolitionists groups in the United States took L'Ouverture as an example in furthering the cause of emancipation. And a call for African American recruits in Massachusetts to join the Union army referred to them as "Black Toussaints". Even into the twentieth century Toussaint L'Ouverture and his cause were to inspire anti-colonial movements.
Overall, "Black Spartacus" is a worthwhile read.
In the chapter "A Universal Hero", the writer focuses on L'Ouverture's enduring legacy and the impact the revolution had in the Caribbean, America's and beyond. Rebellions arose in the Caribbean, Central and South America with the events in Saint-Dominique as a guiding light. The United Irishman of the same time used Saint-Dominique's revolutionary example in what they saw as a common cause in Ireland's republican challenge to British rule. Abolitionists groups in the United States took L'Ouverture as an example in furthering the cause of emancipation. And a call for African American recruits in Massachusetts to join the Union army referred to them as "Black Toussaints". Even into the twentieth century Toussaint L'Ouverture and his cause were to inspire anti-colonial movements.
Overall, "Black Spartacus" is a worthwhile read.
May 8, 2022
Trigger warnings: slavery, war, colonialism, racism, racial slurs, death, death of a child, incarceration.
I'm having one of those situations where I'd never heard of Toussaint Louverture prior to picking up this book and all of a sudden, he's everywhere all the time. Wild.
Anyway. This was extremely compelling, and I was fascinated by a lot of the changes implemented by Louverture, particularly around education for all and around insuring that there was equal representation of the Black, white and mixed race populations in the administration.
It was, on the whole, a biography that paints him in a very positive light and kind of glosses over the fact that after his enslavement ended, Louverture was himself an enslaver. Obviously, that changed following the uprising but it would have been nice to have more recognition of his humanity and the fact that he was as much a product of the 18th century system as anyone.
Anyway. This was a very thorough examination of Louverture's life and legacy, and I'm really glad I picked it up. I knew the basics of the Haitian revolution, but this filled in a lot of gaps for me very nicely.
I'm having one of those situations where I'd never heard of Toussaint Louverture prior to picking up this book and all of a sudden, he's everywhere all the time. Wild.
Anyway. This was extremely compelling, and I was fascinated by a lot of the changes implemented by Louverture, particularly around education for all and around insuring that there was equal representation of the Black, white and mixed race populations in the administration.
It was, on the whole, a biography that paints him in a very positive light and kind of glosses over the fact that after his enslavement ended, Louverture was himself an enslaver. Obviously, that changed following the uprising but it would have been nice to have more recognition of his humanity and the fact that he was as much a product of the 18th century system as anyone.
Anyway. This was a very thorough examination of Louverture's life and legacy, and I'm really glad I picked it up. I knew the basics of the Haitian revolution, but this filled in a lot of gaps for me very nicely.
June 29, 2025
Black Spartacus has to be one of the worst history books that I have ever read. In fact I wouldn't even call it a history book, this is a hagiography pure and simple. It's funny because the author starts the book going through the books written about Toussaint and complained about the fact that many of them were subjective or hagiographies and then he proceeded to do exactly the same thing.
This is a great pity because the subject matter itself is very interesting. Toussaint Louverture truly is a larger then life person, he managed to almost single handedly liberate Haiti (Saint Domingue) and outmanoeuvred the Spanish, the British and the French.
But this book simply does not do the story justice. It seems that the aim of the book is to promote Toussaint Louverture's positive moral characteristics and build up his legend rather then objectively tell the story of the liberator. For example, I would have liked an objective discussion of what led to certain events at the end and why certain people behaved the way they did. But there was none of that. The most used word in this book is 'Louverturian', this was Louverturian and that was Louverturian, everything is Louverturian.
I would have liked to read more about the actual history of Haiti itself. Once Toussaint dies the author doesn't even bother to write one sentence about what happened after that in the country. Instead he discusses every single book, play, song and even statues dedicated to Toussaint Louverture. While I agree that is important to highlight his legacy, spending dozens of pages detailing individual theatre plays is a bit of a waste.
I am left very disappointed by this book which is too bad
This is a great pity because the subject matter itself is very interesting. Toussaint Louverture truly is a larger then life person, he managed to almost single handedly liberate Haiti (Saint Domingue) and outmanoeuvred the Spanish, the British and the French.
But this book simply does not do the story justice. It seems that the aim of the book is to promote Toussaint Louverture's positive moral characteristics and build up his legend rather then objectively tell the story of the liberator. For example, I would have liked an objective discussion of what led to certain events at the end and why certain people behaved the way they did. But there was none of that. The most used word in this book is 'Louverturian', this was Louverturian and that was Louverturian, everything is Louverturian.
I would have liked to read more about the actual history of Haiti itself. Once Toussaint dies the author doesn't even bother to write one sentence about what happened after that in the country. Instead he discusses every single book, play, song and even statues dedicated to Toussaint Louverture. While I agree that is important to highlight his legacy, spending dozens of pages detailing individual theatre plays is a bit of a waste.
I am left very disappointed by this book which is too bad
July 29, 2021
I was watching for this book when I first saw it as one of the contenders for the 2021 Wolfson prize. I was actually not surprised to see it win as an inner feeling told me it probably would and I was pleased since it was in my top 2 of the list.
I had poor knowledge about Toussaint Louverture prior to reading this book and like most historical figures, one would need to read much more than one book to truly understand such a character. Yet, it helped me get a better grasp on his life, his personal traits, his achievements, and his legacy. All these elements are masterfully conveyed by the beautiful eloquence of Sudhir Hazareesingh, a historian I will certainly look into further.
I was enthralled by the idea of learning more about Toussaint but I knew from the beginning that this biography would not be entirely objective. The title itself betrays a certain bias by depicting Toussaint's life as being epic. While certainly not a false adjective, it still reveals a certain bias in favour of the man. I remember a book written in the 1930s by a French historian about the Crusades. The title was: The Epic History of the Crusades and the book gave an overly positive vision of the Crusades in favour of the Crusaders. Since then, I am always wary of any book whose title includes hyperbolic terms such as epic.
This bias seemed to be confirmed after delving quite deeply into the book as Toussaint seemed to be the symbol of perfection, forgiveness, cleverness, courage. It seemed that he never made any mistakes, was impeccable at everything he did, always outsmarted or outmaneuvered his adversaries and so on. In short, he seemed to have superhuman capabilities as some Haitian inhabitants believed. Yet, it is only deep within the book that the author showed his flaws but it is true that he did not seem to have many. More often than not, he seemed to engage in negative behaviour when there was a necessity, for a bigger purpose. For example, he humiliated and sapped the authority of Roume, one of the French representatives sent by France. I found that to be surprising coming from a man who swore by his honour given that Roume professed his admiration for Toussaint and the latter was even witness on the birth certificate of Roume's daughter. Roume eventually ended up incarcerated in a cage open to the elements where he suffered greatly and almost died. Toussaint freed him, mostly out of fear of being blamed for his death. Toussaint's most fervent defenders will probably say that Toussaint did what needed to be done to secure his place as Governor of Saint Domingue and build the road toward the colony's autonomy but I still found this event to be revealing of Toussaint's ability to act in dishonourable ways.
Another aspect that seemed to contrast with his overall behavior is the fact that he defended the sacredness of mariage and implemented laws to make divorce more difficult. Yet, he was not shy of having mistresses himself with one anecdote told by the author where he was seeing one of his mistresses while the latter's husband was guarding the door. "Do as I say, not as I act".
However, those are obviously poor critics in the face of his achievements. They simply show the man as being complex. He is a human being after all. More serious critics can be thrown at his laws to force laborers to stay in their plantation, and the establishment of severe working conditions to increase production and improve the colony's economic output which had fallen to almost nothing during the 1790s. Again, there was a bigger purpose but the way to achieve it makes one pause.
That said, it is undeniable that Toussaint was a unique figure in history and proved to be wiser than most people in many aspects. He truly envisioned men (and women) to be equal, imagining and creating a society where all ethnicities could live and work together. That is what he did in Saint-Domingue by offering an amnesty to all whites after the abolition of slavery in 1794, offering even to the colons and settlers who had fled to return to them their properties (meaning their lands, not their slaves). Alas, few people shared his vision and it lasted only as long as he was in power. His successor, Dessalines, known as the terror of the whites, had most of the white settlers killed after Toussaint's capture. This emphasizes how Toussaint was a true visionary who firmly believed in the principle of forgiveness. He even treated humanely prisoners of war, be them Spanish, British, or French.
His vision continued with the creation of his 1801 constitution which sought to ensure slavery would never be re-established and to place Saint-Domingue as an autonomous entity in the world. In all aspects, he sought to use his power to advance the interests of Saint-Domingue but also of all slaves throughout the world.
What I found lacking in this book, which is a common omission, is the focus on the Fench attempt at re-establishing control over Saint-Domingue, allegedly purely out of racist views. While this is entirely true, I think the book would have stood to gain from a more comprehensive vision of the dynamic. Hazareesingh quickly mentioned that Napoléon sought to build a French Carribean empire with Saint-Domingue at its center but he forgets to mention that one of the reasons the French wanted to retake control of the island was simply because it used to be the richest colony of the region and that its economic advantages were enormous. He also makes great case of the horrors caused by Rochambeau's troops during the invasion but I did not find any mention of the horrors caused by Toussaint's troops even though there have been cases of Fench soldiers being attached and sawed through. There were also contradictions between Toussaint's statement of sparing no one when referring to invading French but then being recorded as treating his prisoners well. Which is it? How can you spare no one and at the same time make prisoners? It is probably in these pages that the bias I mentioned above was most evident.
Regardless, Toussaint has become an exemple of Black emancipation but also a symbol of the fight against injustice, no matter the ethnicity. This portrait is very well depicted by Hazareesingh and his book ends on Toussaint's image in the imagination of people around the world throughout the centuries. Even today, he remains an example to us in many ways, not least in his belief in an equal society where multiple ethnicities live together in harmony and where all look together toward the future without dwelling on the past. A lesson for us all.
I had poor knowledge about Toussaint Louverture prior to reading this book and like most historical figures, one would need to read much more than one book to truly understand such a character. Yet, it helped me get a better grasp on his life, his personal traits, his achievements, and his legacy. All these elements are masterfully conveyed by the beautiful eloquence of Sudhir Hazareesingh, a historian I will certainly look into further.
I was enthralled by the idea of learning more about Toussaint but I knew from the beginning that this biography would not be entirely objective. The title itself betrays a certain bias by depicting Toussaint's life as being epic. While certainly not a false adjective, it still reveals a certain bias in favour of the man. I remember a book written in the 1930s by a French historian about the Crusades. The title was: The Epic History of the Crusades and the book gave an overly positive vision of the Crusades in favour of the Crusaders. Since then, I am always wary of any book whose title includes hyperbolic terms such as epic.
This bias seemed to be confirmed after delving quite deeply into the book as Toussaint seemed to be the symbol of perfection, forgiveness, cleverness, courage. It seemed that he never made any mistakes, was impeccable at everything he did, always outsmarted or outmaneuvered his adversaries and so on. In short, he seemed to have superhuman capabilities as some Haitian inhabitants believed. Yet, it is only deep within the book that the author showed his flaws but it is true that he did not seem to have many. More often than not, he seemed to engage in negative behaviour when there was a necessity, for a bigger purpose. For example, he humiliated and sapped the authority of Roume, one of the French representatives sent by France. I found that to be surprising coming from a man who swore by his honour given that Roume professed his admiration for Toussaint and the latter was even witness on the birth certificate of Roume's daughter. Roume eventually ended up incarcerated in a cage open to the elements where he suffered greatly and almost died. Toussaint freed him, mostly out of fear of being blamed for his death. Toussaint's most fervent defenders will probably say that Toussaint did what needed to be done to secure his place as Governor of Saint Domingue and build the road toward the colony's autonomy but I still found this event to be revealing of Toussaint's ability to act in dishonourable ways.
Another aspect that seemed to contrast with his overall behavior is the fact that he defended the sacredness of mariage and implemented laws to make divorce more difficult. Yet, he was not shy of having mistresses himself with one anecdote told by the author where he was seeing one of his mistresses while the latter's husband was guarding the door. "Do as I say, not as I act".
However, those are obviously poor critics in the face of his achievements. They simply show the man as being complex. He is a human being after all. More serious critics can be thrown at his laws to force laborers to stay in their plantation, and the establishment of severe working conditions to increase production and improve the colony's economic output which had fallen to almost nothing during the 1790s. Again, there was a bigger purpose but the way to achieve it makes one pause.
That said, it is undeniable that Toussaint was a unique figure in history and proved to be wiser than most people in many aspects. He truly envisioned men (and women) to be equal, imagining and creating a society where all ethnicities could live and work together. That is what he did in Saint-Domingue by offering an amnesty to all whites after the abolition of slavery in 1794, offering even to the colons and settlers who had fled to return to them their properties (meaning their lands, not their slaves). Alas, few people shared his vision and it lasted only as long as he was in power. His successor, Dessalines, known as the terror of the whites, had most of the white settlers killed after Toussaint's capture. This emphasizes how Toussaint was a true visionary who firmly believed in the principle of forgiveness. He even treated humanely prisoners of war, be them Spanish, British, or French.
His vision continued with the creation of his 1801 constitution which sought to ensure slavery would never be re-established and to place Saint-Domingue as an autonomous entity in the world. In all aspects, he sought to use his power to advance the interests of Saint-Domingue but also of all slaves throughout the world.
What I found lacking in this book, which is a common omission, is the focus on the Fench attempt at re-establishing control over Saint-Domingue, allegedly purely out of racist views. While this is entirely true, I think the book would have stood to gain from a more comprehensive vision of the dynamic. Hazareesingh quickly mentioned that Napoléon sought to build a French Carribean empire with Saint-Domingue at its center but he forgets to mention that one of the reasons the French wanted to retake control of the island was simply because it used to be the richest colony of the region and that its economic advantages were enormous. He also makes great case of the horrors caused by Rochambeau's troops during the invasion but I did not find any mention of the horrors caused by Toussaint's troops even though there have been cases of Fench soldiers being attached and sawed through. There were also contradictions between Toussaint's statement of sparing no one when referring to invading French but then being recorded as treating his prisoners well. Which is it? How can you spare no one and at the same time make prisoners? It is probably in these pages that the bias I mentioned above was most evident.
Regardless, Toussaint has become an exemple of Black emancipation but also a symbol of the fight against injustice, no matter the ethnicity. This portrait is very well depicted by Hazareesingh and his book ends on Toussaint's image in the imagination of people around the world throughout the centuries. Even today, he remains an example to us in many ways, not least in his belief in an equal society where multiple ethnicities live together in harmony and where all look together toward the future without dwelling on the past. A lesson for us all.
July 6, 2021
Гаити улсын түүхийг төдий л сайн мэддэггүй бид одоо байгаа ядуу зүдүү хэцүү орноор төсөөлдөг шүү дээ. Гэтэл үнэн дээ маш хүнд хэцүү замаар тусгаар тогтнолоо олж авсан ард иргэд байдгийг энэ номноос олж танилаа. Наполеоны өмнөөс зогсож эрх чөлөө тусгаар тогтнолыг хожмын үр хүүхдүүддээ өвлүүлсэн Tusan-ий биограж сонирхолтой болоод дуу алдмаар байлаа. Бүх цаг үед манлайлагч лидерүүд төрдөгийн нэг нь тэр байжээ.
January 27, 2022
It is a tragedy that a book about such a fascinating man and moment in history could be executed so poorly.
First, let me say that this book is not for those who are unfamiliar with the French or Haitian revolutions. The author constantly jumps through time and never provides the context necessary for a reader unaware of the forces at play during this period. I, however, am fairly well-read on both revolutions and still found this book to be dreadful. The Haitian Revolution is an amazing chapter of history and I strongly recommend Avengers of the New World to anyone seeking a good book on the topic. Alternatively, Mike Duncan devoted a fantastic season of his Revolutions podcast to Haiti.
This book is Academic in all of the bad ways and none of the good. It is dry and pretentious, but lacks the critical analysis that should be expected of a true scholar and is colored by pro-Toussaint bias. The political nature of the Haitian Revolution and Louverture’s own tendency to alter or fabricate facts give us plenty of reason to be skeptical of primary sources. The author seems to take too many sources at face value and rarely provides the reader with the context needed to evaluate the source for themselves. One example would be that the author concludes that Toussaint was involved in the 1791 rebellion from the beginning largely based on the fact that he later claimed to have been in a letter. Louverture had plenty of political reasons to make this claim and was well known for bending the truth to suit his needs; I don’t think that Hazareesingh treated his claims with enough skepticism. Tellingly, the author does question the validity of sources when the information they contain portrays Toussaint in a negative light. Furthermore, quotes are often only attributed in the endnotes- and even then the reader may be left with only a name rather than an understanding of the speakers affiliations or politics.
Hazareesingh devotes most of the book to telling the reader about Toussaints values, but rarely backs up his claims with evidence. You will be bombarded throughout with statements about “Toussaints Republican values” but no great effort is made to reconcile those supposed values with the fact that, when given the chance to write a constitution, he vested himself with supreme military and civil powers for life and gave himself the right to appoint his own successor. Over and over Toussaint demonstrated that he was utterly unwilling to share power with anyone. Could he still have strong Republican values? Of course, but a better author would explore these contradictions rather than ignore them.
I approached this book with a decent understanding of the Haitian Revolution but a strong desire to add to my knowledge about a few key events, none more so than the Sonthonax-Louverture split. Unfortunately I didn’t learn much new. Hazareesingh is not a competent storyteller- but this did not harm my reading experience nearly as much as his seemingly deliberate attempts to distort the facts in Toussaint’s favor. For example, he presents quotes from Somthonax criticizing Louverture before he explains that Louverture forced Sonthonax into exile (and likely retribution from French authorities). The problem is that the quotes were made by Sonthonax after he was forced back to France at gunpoint. I can’t help thinking that Hazareesingh was deliberately distorting the chronology to justify Toussaints actions with Sonthonax’s reaction to them.
This is a bad book, but it’s subject is certainly someone worth studying. Was Louverture a great man? Certainly he was from the standpoint of possessing extraordinary talents and employing them to accomplish difficult goals. Was he a great man from a moral standpoint? I don’t know. I don’t think the historical evidence will ever be able to provide us with a definite answer. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, his own interests never diverged from the noble causes he espoused by enough to test his loyalty to those ideals. It is entirely possible to interpret his actions as that of a man dedicated to building a multiracial society based on brotherhood and equality- this is what Hazareesingh chooses to do. Still, it is just as possible to interpret his actions as that of a power-obsessed former slaveowner who will sing the song of freedom just hard enough to get the backing of ex-slaves, but still force black men onto plantations they are not allowed to leave and have them beaten with clubs when their work is unsatisfactory. He resorted to immoral means repeatedly, but were those means justified in the pursuit of noble ends? I think so, but am resigned to the fact that I will never have great certainty in this answer- I don’t think the historical record could justify it. All I can hope for is that a better author will one day take the time to examine these questions rather than avoid them as this one did.
First, let me say that this book is not for those who are unfamiliar with the French or Haitian revolutions. The author constantly jumps through time and never provides the context necessary for a reader unaware of the forces at play during this period. I, however, am fairly well-read on both revolutions and still found this book to be dreadful. The Haitian Revolution is an amazing chapter of history and I strongly recommend Avengers of the New World to anyone seeking a good book on the topic. Alternatively, Mike Duncan devoted a fantastic season of his Revolutions podcast to Haiti.
This book is Academic in all of the bad ways and none of the good. It is dry and pretentious, but lacks the critical analysis that should be expected of a true scholar and is colored by pro-Toussaint bias. The political nature of the Haitian Revolution and Louverture’s own tendency to alter or fabricate facts give us plenty of reason to be skeptical of primary sources. The author seems to take too many sources at face value and rarely provides the reader with the context needed to evaluate the source for themselves. One example would be that the author concludes that Toussaint was involved in the 1791 rebellion from the beginning largely based on the fact that he later claimed to have been in a letter. Louverture had plenty of political reasons to make this claim and was well known for bending the truth to suit his needs; I don’t think that Hazareesingh treated his claims with enough skepticism. Tellingly, the author does question the validity of sources when the information they contain portrays Toussaint in a negative light. Furthermore, quotes are often only attributed in the endnotes- and even then the reader may be left with only a name rather than an understanding of the speakers affiliations or politics.
Hazareesingh devotes most of the book to telling the reader about Toussaints values, but rarely backs up his claims with evidence. You will be bombarded throughout with statements about “Toussaints Republican values” but no great effort is made to reconcile those supposed values with the fact that, when given the chance to write a constitution, he vested himself with supreme military and civil powers for life and gave himself the right to appoint his own successor. Over and over Toussaint demonstrated that he was utterly unwilling to share power with anyone. Could he still have strong Republican values? Of course, but a better author would explore these contradictions rather than ignore them.
I approached this book with a decent understanding of the Haitian Revolution but a strong desire to add to my knowledge about a few key events, none more so than the Sonthonax-Louverture split. Unfortunately I didn’t learn much new. Hazareesingh is not a competent storyteller- but this did not harm my reading experience nearly as much as his seemingly deliberate attempts to distort the facts in Toussaint’s favor. For example, he presents quotes from Somthonax criticizing Louverture before he explains that Louverture forced Sonthonax into exile (and likely retribution from French authorities). The problem is that the quotes were made by Sonthonax after he was forced back to France at gunpoint. I can’t help thinking that Hazareesingh was deliberately distorting the chronology to justify Toussaints actions with Sonthonax’s reaction to them.
This is a bad book, but it’s subject is certainly someone worth studying. Was Louverture a great man? Certainly he was from the standpoint of possessing extraordinary talents and employing them to accomplish difficult goals. Was he a great man from a moral standpoint? I don’t know. I don’t think the historical evidence will ever be able to provide us with a definite answer. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, his own interests never diverged from the noble causes he espoused by enough to test his loyalty to those ideals. It is entirely possible to interpret his actions as that of a man dedicated to building a multiracial society based on brotherhood and equality- this is what Hazareesingh chooses to do. Still, it is just as possible to interpret his actions as that of a power-obsessed former slaveowner who will sing the song of freedom just hard enough to get the backing of ex-slaves, but still force black men onto plantations they are not allowed to leave and have them beaten with clubs when their work is unsatisfactory. He resorted to immoral means repeatedly, but were those means justified in the pursuit of noble ends? I think so, but am resigned to the fact that I will never have great certainty in this answer- I don’t think the historical record could justify it. All I can hope for is that a better author will one day take the time to examine these questions rather than avoid them as this one did.
May 16, 2021
A well-written political and military biography, if you're in to that. I am glad to have read it especially since I knew absolutely nothing about Toussaint or the Haiti slave revolt. The writing is very good, and even if you don't really care about all of the colonial politics and alliances, you will understand it all.
However if you are like me and read biographies to understand character as well as specific times and places and cultures, you may be disappointed. Again, this is a political and military biography. The excellent introduction sets the scene of 1790s Haiti (did you know the indigenous people are extinct), but other than that the book is European in-fighting and battles and a thorough account of Toussaint's excellent political maneuvering. He was quite good at it and many of the accounts will have you chuckling because boy did he really play that governor! But then you'll read a throw-away sentence referencing his mistresses and wonder more about Toussaint as a man versus a legend. Was he good to his wife? How did he actually practice his Catholicism? What was it actually like to live in that time and place? There's plenty of references to vodou religion but it never quite comes to life. So your enjoyment of this book will depend heavily on your expectations.
However if you are like me and read biographies to understand character as well as specific times and places and cultures, you may be disappointed. Again, this is a political and military biography. The excellent introduction sets the scene of 1790s Haiti (did you know the indigenous people are extinct), but other than that the book is European in-fighting and battles and a thorough account of Toussaint's excellent political maneuvering. He was quite good at it and many of the accounts will have you chuckling because boy did he really play that governor! But then you'll read a throw-away sentence referencing his mistresses and wonder more about Toussaint as a man versus a legend. Was he good to his wife? How did he actually practice his Catholicism? What was it actually like to live in that time and place? There's plenty of references to vodou religion but it never quite comes to life. So your enjoyment of this book will depend heavily on your expectations.
March 9, 2024
A first rate biography of a remarkable man and one whose life and reads should be better known. I can not fault the scholarship, or the new knowledge brought to the subject but, honestly, for bringing the whole sweep of Haiti's history, and the history of the rebellions to life I would still recommend C L R James's The Black Jacobins. In eighty years since its publication it is still a fabulous read. I admire Mr. Hazareesingh's book but it is not as readable as James's. Still I would say that everyone should make themselves acquainted with Toussaint Louverture and what he did.
January 5, 2023
A fantastic history and an inspirational story, but there was just something about the writing that didn't quite click for me. Not sure if the conversion to audiobook had a large effect, but parts were just so dull, others sounded poorly recorded. Read, don't listen.
November 7, 2020
Check out my full-length written review at Open Letters Review here:
https://openlettersreview.com/posts/b...
https://openlettersreview.com/posts/b...
August 18, 2023
Hoewel het een indrukwekkende man is geweest die veel heeft bereikt, lukt het de schrijver niet om aan reflectie te doen. Hierdoor is het boek vooral een verhaal over hoe goed Toussaint Louverture is zonder in te gaan op zijn tekortkomingen zoals het herinvoeren van de slavernij onder een andere naam
January 22, 2021
Incredible read
June 17, 2022
Well... certainly very, very well researched, but terribly dull to read. Compared to another biography I just finished, of Louis Vuitton by Caroline Bongrand, this was a real bore.
Plus, how could Allen Lane (the publisher) choose a narrator who can't pronounce French words. Sometimes it was difficult to understand what he meant, and impossible to get some of the names. (Very beautiful voice otherwise.)
Plus, how could Allen Lane (the publisher) choose a narrator who can't pronounce French words. Sometimes it was difficult to understand what he meant, and impossible to get some of the names. (Very beautiful voice otherwise.)
May 13, 2023
Onovertroffen biografie. De veelzijdigheid en complexiteit van Toussaint komt voor het eerst goed in beeld. Onmisbaar voor wie geïnteresseerd is in het revolutietijdperk.
September 4, 2025
thoroughly enjoying learning more about revolutionary figures and their complexities (che guevara, dolours price, ayatollah khomeini, malcolm x, and now toussaint louverture). it’s an important reminder of my favorite quote of all time from my boy noam: “we shouldn’t be looking for heroes, we should be looking for good ideas.” shoutout natacha for introducing me to this book-> i’d agree that toussaint is absolutely the MLK to dessalines’ malcolm x in late 18th century haiti.
i commend hazareesingh on portraying louverture as a full, 3-dimensional character not least because of his dubious adherence to racial equality. while he was in full support of the emancipation of black people, his use of realpolitik and submission to the prevailing ideas of the time is manifest in that he likely held his lead commander, dessalines, as a slave at some point and that he ultimately embodied the paternalistic condescension that the hated french envoy to haiti, Sonthonax, displayed toward the black citizens of Haiti.
he’s a living contradiction: staunch catholic and voodoo believer, black liberator and white apologist, skilled military commander and equitable administrator. it’s this eclectic combination of virtues that allowed him to be heard in white society, seen as equals to french aristocrats and venerated by white plantation owners. this was made possible by his good fortune in his ‘owners’ treating him extraordinarily well by the period’s standards on the breda plantation where he grew up. furthermore, his strict adherence to republican virtues such as brotherhood and service to one’s country reminds me of some of the most prominent socialists of today, believing in the dignity of work and virtues of discipline while speaking out against all forms of exploitation in appropriating the fruits of others’ labor for personal profit.
his true legacy, as explained in the final chapters, is the ubiquitousness of his ideas in subsequent centuries, inspiring figures such as simon bolivar, fidel castro, and the american black proletariat in fiery speeches during the civil rights movement. his ideas (however distorted through the centuries) heralded the fight for racial equality, resistance to imperialism, and marginalized people’s participation in government and civil society, and for that we are forever indebted to him.
i commend hazareesingh on portraying louverture as a full, 3-dimensional character not least because of his dubious adherence to racial equality. while he was in full support of the emancipation of black people, his use of realpolitik and submission to the prevailing ideas of the time is manifest in that he likely held his lead commander, dessalines, as a slave at some point and that he ultimately embodied the paternalistic condescension that the hated french envoy to haiti, Sonthonax, displayed toward the black citizens of Haiti.
he’s a living contradiction: staunch catholic and voodoo believer, black liberator and white apologist, skilled military commander and equitable administrator. it’s this eclectic combination of virtues that allowed him to be heard in white society, seen as equals to french aristocrats and venerated by white plantation owners. this was made possible by his good fortune in his ‘owners’ treating him extraordinarily well by the period’s standards on the breda plantation where he grew up. furthermore, his strict adherence to republican virtues such as brotherhood and service to one’s country reminds me of some of the most prominent socialists of today, believing in the dignity of work and virtues of discipline while speaking out against all forms of exploitation in appropriating the fruits of others’ labor for personal profit.
his true legacy, as explained in the final chapters, is the ubiquitousness of his ideas in subsequent centuries, inspiring figures such as simon bolivar, fidel castro, and the american black proletariat in fiery speeches during the civil rights movement. his ideas (however distorted through the centuries) heralded the fight for racial equality, resistance to imperialism, and marginalized people’s participation in government and civil society, and for that we are forever indebted to him.
July 14, 2021
A hagiography that somehow left me disliking Toussaint
August 17, 2022
Toussaint Louverture was undoubtedly one of the great heroes of history, as the subtitle “The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture” makes very clear. He led the only successful slave revolt in history. The story is incredibly complicated and began with the storming of the Bastille in Paris in 1789. The slaves of Saint Domingue (now Haiti) took the message to heart, and in 1791 there was a spontaneous uprising, of which Toussaint Louverture soon became the leader. His parents were both African and both came from the Ewe-speaking region of West Africa in what is now Ghana. It is possible that his family were noble because of the respect in which they were held by the other slaves on the Breda Plantation. Toussaint himself was freed from slavery, and continued to live in some modest comfort on the Breda estate in the 1780s. We also know that he spoke French, Kreyol and Ewe, and that he was able to write. All of this shows that he was a remarkable man, but gives no indication of the significant role that he was to play in the liberation of his country.
The story of the rebellion is extremely complicated. In 1791, the slaves seized on the slogan “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity” with great fervour. Unsurprisingly, they took it to mean that no-one should be a slave, that all were equal and the colour of someone’s skin did not matter and that solidarity should be a guiding principle of life. This came as quite a shock to the French, especially to the plantation owners and their white employees, who were known by the collective term colons, and to the merchants of the ports of the French Atlantic coast, especially Nantes, La Rochelle and Bordeaux, who had made considerable profits from the slave trade. Basically, the slaves un Louverture liberated themselves, leaving French revolutionaries, like Abbe Gregoire and Robespierre to trail along in their wake, and leading to the abolition of slavery in France and its colonies in 1794.
Louverture was now in control of Saint Domingue, but that did not mean that he controlled the whole of Hispaniola. Three-fifths of the island was the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo. The Spanish had been forced to concede the western part of Hispaniola to the French at the Treaty of Ryswick, ending the War of the British Succession, in 1698, and they wanted the territory back because it was extremely profitable. They also did not want the idea of slave emancipation spreading to their own plantations in the eastern part of the island. A sizeable number of the French colons were supporters of the Ancien Regime, and fled to Santo Domingo as a safe haven from which they could conduct military operations against Louverture and his armies. Meanwhile the British, who were at war with Revolutionary France, were also alarmed about the idea of emancipation spreading to nearby Jamaica, and they decided to invade. Thus, Toussaint found himself fighting the three great European Imperial powers of the time, and did not receive very much in the way of military assistance from Revolutionary France.
How did Toussaint achieve this? He defeated the French colons, the Spanish and British armies. Defeating the colons was not that surprising. The 1791 uprising was a levee en masse, and sheer weight of numbers overpowered the enemy. Defeating the Spanish and British armies was another matter entirely. Both the Spanish and British commanders speak admiringly about Toussaint’s army, praising the fighting qualities of his troops, both as guerrillas and in open battle. This is not achieved quickly, and yet Toussaint was able to inspire his combatants, both male and female, to take on and defeat well-equipped armies.
The answer may lie in two facts that the author mentions in passing. First, more than half the population of Saint Domingue (Haiti) was born in Africa. That the French had to import slaves in such numbers speaks volumes about the way in which the Ancien Regime colons treated their slaves. Importing new slaves from Africa must have been cheaper than providing decent living conditions, including medicines. The second fact is that the largest linguistic group amongst the slaves imported from Africa were the KiKongo from the Kingdom of Kongo in northern Angola. The Kingdom of Kongo had not yet been conquered by the Portuguese colonialists, and had been at war with them, intermittently, since 1622. It is therefore possible that many of these slaves were prisoners of war, soldiers, capturing during the fighting with the Portuguese. They would have been skilled in the use of muskets and artillery which were supplied to the Kingdom of Kongo by the Dutch, who were at war with the Portuguese for a considerable period of the seventeenth century, and then by other European powers competing with the Portuguese for control of the slave markets. I can only wonder why the Portuguese preferred to sell KiKongo speakers to the French colons in Saint Domingue, rather than sell them in their own colony of Brazil, which was only a third of the distance across the Atlantic. It does suggest that they knew they would be troublesome, and offloaded them at a profit on another colonial empire. There is no documentary evidence to prove any of this. I just have a suspicious mind.
There is a final complication in this history of the Saint Domingue slave revolt. The fall of Robespierre led to a move to the right in French politics, and the newly-installed Directory was much more favourable to the merchants of the Atlantic seaports, and so began the campaign for the re-establishment of slavery in the French Caribbean. This is reflected in the relationships between Toussaint and the agents, the principal French officer on Saint Domingue. Basically, they came into conflict and Toussaint, as Commander-in-Chief of the French Republican army on Saint Domingue was able to arrange for their removal. This brought him into direct conflict with Napoleon Bonaparte, who became First Consul of the Republic. Bonaparte sent an army, under the command of his brother-in-law, General Leclerc, to overthrow Toussaint and his supporters and to reinstate slavery on the island.
Toussaint, who up to that point had been a loyal French citizen and a determined republican, led the resistance from the moment that Leclerc and his army arrived. The expedition was a disaster. The French army, being from Europe, had no immunity to yellow fever, and thousands fell ill. Meanwhile Toussaint inflicted several defeats on the French army. His mistake was to trust Leclerc’s honour. He went to a parlay, was kidnapped and sent to France, where he died in a prison in the Jura mountains.
Sudhir Hazareesingh tells this complicated story with consummate skill. He guides us through the complexities as revealed by new discoveries from the archives in France, Spain and Great Britain. He shows that Toussaint could not always rely on his subordinates, and he guides us through the arguments between blacks, whites and people of colour, which affected the course of the struggle. But most of all it is his use of archival discoveries that were not available to CLR James when he wrote the Black Jacobins, because no-one was aware of their existence.
Toussaint’s legacy is in the fact that the French were able to reimpose slavery in Guadeloupe and Martinique, but when they tried it in Saint Domingue, there was a repeat of the levee en masse of 1791, and the French armies were defeated by generals who had gained their military experience under Toussaint Louverture.
The emergence of the first black-governed republic, free of slavery, was Toussaint Louverture’s great contribution to the history of our planet.
This book helps to make it explicable.
The story of the rebellion is extremely complicated. In 1791, the slaves seized on the slogan “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity” with great fervour. Unsurprisingly, they took it to mean that no-one should be a slave, that all were equal and the colour of someone’s skin did not matter and that solidarity should be a guiding principle of life. This came as quite a shock to the French, especially to the plantation owners and their white employees, who were known by the collective term colons, and to the merchants of the ports of the French Atlantic coast, especially Nantes, La Rochelle and Bordeaux, who had made considerable profits from the slave trade. Basically, the slaves un Louverture liberated themselves, leaving French revolutionaries, like Abbe Gregoire and Robespierre to trail along in their wake, and leading to the abolition of slavery in France and its colonies in 1794.
Louverture was now in control of Saint Domingue, but that did not mean that he controlled the whole of Hispaniola. Three-fifths of the island was the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo. The Spanish had been forced to concede the western part of Hispaniola to the French at the Treaty of Ryswick, ending the War of the British Succession, in 1698, and they wanted the territory back because it was extremely profitable. They also did not want the idea of slave emancipation spreading to their own plantations in the eastern part of the island. A sizeable number of the French colons were supporters of the Ancien Regime, and fled to Santo Domingo as a safe haven from which they could conduct military operations against Louverture and his armies. Meanwhile the British, who were at war with Revolutionary France, were also alarmed about the idea of emancipation spreading to nearby Jamaica, and they decided to invade. Thus, Toussaint found himself fighting the three great European Imperial powers of the time, and did not receive very much in the way of military assistance from Revolutionary France.
How did Toussaint achieve this? He defeated the French colons, the Spanish and British armies. Defeating the colons was not that surprising. The 1791 uprising was a levee en masse, and sheer weight of numbers overpowered the enemy. Defeating the Spanish and British armies was another matter entirely. Both the Spanish and British commanders speak admiringly about Toussaint’s army, praising the fighting qualities of his troops, both as guerrillas and in open battle. This is not achieved quickly, and yet Toussaint was able to inspire his combatants, both male and female, to take on and defeat well-equipped armies.
The answer may lie in two facts that the author mentions in passing. First, more than half the population of Saint Domingue (Haiti) was born in Africa. That the French had to import slaves in such numbers speaks volumes about the way in which the Ancien Regime colons treated their slaves. Importing new slaves from Africa must have been cheaper than providing decent living conditions, including medicines. The second fact is that the largest linguistic group amongst the slaves imported from Africa were the KiKongo from the Kingdom of Kongo in northern Angola. The Kingdom of Kongo had not yet been conquered by the Portuguese colonialists, and had been at war with them, intermittently, since 1622. It is therefore possible that many of these slaves were prisoners of war, soldiers, capturing during the fighting with the Portuguese. They would have been skilled in the use of muskets and artillery which were supplied to the Kingdom of Kongo by the Dutch, who were at war with the Portuguese for a considerable period of the seventeenth century, and then by other European powers competing with the Portuguese for control of the slave markets. I can only wonder why the Portuguese preferred to sell KiKongo speakers to the French colons in Saint Domingue, rather than sell them in their own colony of Brazil, which was only a third of the distance across the Atlantic. It does suggest that they knew they would be troublesome, and offloaded them at a profit on another colonial empire. There is no documentary evidence to prove any of this. I just have a suspicious mind.
There is a final complication in this history of the Saint Domingue slave revolt. The fall of Robespierre led to a move to the right in French politics, and the newly-installed Directory was much more favourable to the merchants of the Atlantic seaports, and so began the campaign for the re-establishment of slavery in the French Caribbean. This is reflected in the relationships between Toussaint and the agents, the principal French officer on Saint Domingue. Basically, they came into conflict and Toussaint, as Commander-in-Chief of the French Republican army on Saint Domingue was able to arrange for their removal. This brought him into direct conflict with Napoleon Bonaparte, who became First Consul of the Republic. Bonaparte sent an army, under the command of his brother-in-law, General Leclerc, to overthrow Toussaint and his supporters and to reinstate slavery on the island.
Toussaint, who up to that point had been a loyal French citizen and a determined republican, led the resistance from the moment that Leclerc and his army arrived. The expedition was a disaster. The French army, being from Europe, had no immunity to yellow fever, and thousands fell ill. Meanwhile Toussaint inflicted several defeats on the French army. His mistake was to trust Leclerc’s honour. He went to a parlay, was kidnapped and sent to France, where he died in a prison in the Jura mountains.
Sudhir Hazareesingh tells this complicated story with consummate skill. He guides us through the complexities as revealed by new discoveries from the archives in France, Spain and Great Britain. He shows that Toussaint could not always rely on his subordinates, and he guides us through the arguments between blacks, whites and people of colour, which affected the course of the struggle. But most of all it is his use of archival discoveries that were not available to CLR James when he wrote the Black Jacobins, because no-one was aware of their existence.
Toussaint’s legacy is in the fact that the French were able to reimpose slavery in Guadeloupe and Martinique, but when they tried it in Saint Domingue, there was a repeat of the levee en masse of 1791, and the French armies were defeated by generals who had gained their military experience under Toussaint Louverture.
The emergence of the first black-governed republic, free of slavery, was Toussaint Louverture’s great contribution to the history of our planet.
This book helps to make it explicable.
March 8, 2021
“𝘈𝘵 𝘢 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘕𝘢𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘊𝘢𝘦𝘴𝘢𝘳, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘍𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘙𝘰𝘮𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘶𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘛𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵 𝘓𝘰𝘶𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦”
-𝘍𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘭 𝘊𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰
In August 1791, slaves in the French colony of St Domingue began a series of coordinated revolts on plantations in the northern region. This launched a series of insurrections throughout the colony defeating, in turn, the French 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘴 on the island, a Spanish invasion from Santo Domingo, a British invasion of 60,000 men and ultimately a French invasion of the same size.
The final French invasion, known as the Haitian War of Independence culminated with the Jan 1st, 1804 proclamation of the independence of the new state of Haiti.
Out of these series of conflicts, known collectively as the Haitian Revolution, emerged one unequivocal hero and leader, Toussaint Louverture, who through his bravery on the battlefield and his military and political genius, established himself as Governor of the colony of St Domingue.
Though he never intended to break with France, he recognised how French policy, hostile to trade with US and Britain at the time, was detrimental to the reestablishment of the plantation economy on St Domingue, leading him to proclaim a constitution which spoke to the specific need of his "country".
Ultimately betrayed and led into a French trap, he was exiled to a French prison where he died in April 1803.
This biography reveals much of Toussaint's early life and the unique sources of his version of republicanism. Not merely an adoption of French revolutionary ideals, Toussaint's republicanism came from his African, Creole, Indigenous and Catholic influences.
This bio reveals that Toussaint was a leader of the revolution from its very inception and examines his profound adherence to principals of fraternity and general liberty and the multiracial post-revolutionary society he sought to build. Also,it explains how, in death, Toussaint has become an influence for revolutionary thought throughout the world throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.
Filled with revelations bout his life, his prolific correspondence and his political and military strategy, this biography is an engrossing addition to the Haitian Revolution canon!
-𝘍𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘭 𝘊𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰
In August 1791, slaves in the French colony of St Domingue began a series of coordinated revolts on plantations in the northern region. This launched a series of insurrections throughout the colony defeating, in turn, the French 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘴 on the island, a Spanish invasion from Santo Domingo, a British invasion of 60,000 men and ultimately a French invasion of the same size.
The final French invasion, known as the Haitian War of Independence culminated with the Jan 1st, 1804 proclamation of the independence of the new state of Haiti.
Out of these series of conflicts, known collectively as the Haitian Revolution, emerged one unequivocal hero and leader, Toussaint Louverture, who through his bravery on the battlefield and his military and political genius, established himself as Governor of the colony of St Domingue.
Though he never intended to break with France, he recognised how French policy, hostile to trade with US and Britain at the time, was detrimental to the reestablishment of the plantation economy on St Domingue, leading him to proclaim a constitution which spoke to the specific need of his "country".
Ultimately betrayed and led into a French trap, he was exiled to a French prison where he died in April 1803.
This biography reveals much of Toussaint's early life and the unique sources of his version of republicanism. Not merely an adoption of French revolutionary ideals, Toussaint's republicanism came from his African, Creole, Indigenous and Catholic influences.
This bio reveals that Toussaint was a leader of the revolution from its very inception and examines his profound adherence to principals of fraternity and general liberty and the multiracial post-revolutionary society he sought to build. Also,it explains how, in death, Toussaint has become an influence for revolutionary thought throughout the world throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.
Filled with revelations bout his life, his prolific correspondence and his political and military strategy, this biography is an engrossing addition to the Haitian Revolution canon!
February 10, 2022
There's no question that Toussaint Louverture's life was epic. Rising from slave, to revolutionary general, to governor of his native Haiti, his story is a remarkable one.
Sudhir Hazareesingh has certainly made every effort to do that life justice. His research is comprehensive and impeccable, and the scholarship on show here cannot be faulted.
It is a largely positive portrait of the man, but Hazareesingh backs that up with evidence that casts doubt on some of the more negative interpretations of earlier biographies.
Although little is known about his earliest years, Hazareesingh has mined the sources that we do have to build a portrait full of interesting detail and managed to allow this reader to get a grasp on who Toussaint was.
His writing I feel though falls short of the epic. I know that perhaps that is not what he was striving for, but at times this account of an amazing life needed a few more narrative flourishes. There is no need to embellish the facts of course, but some of the drama of his life felt a little flattened.
It is not a book you can race through then, and there is a lot of detail of Louverture's military campaigns that may be essential to the biography, but don't necessarily cast much light on him as an individual.
Hazareesingh is very good though on Toussaint's complicated relationship with his French imperial masters, and he makes a convincing argument that he was striking out as far as he could given the military threat from Napoleon and France, even if in the end he was not the man who finally took Haiti to full independence.
It is good to see that Louverture is now rightly celebrated, and Hazareesingh closes the book with two sections about his cultural impact, ranging from his inclusion in one of Wordsworth's poems to the music of his fellow Haitian Wyclef Jean. These are worthwhile and interesting additions to the life.
This is well worth reading then. Even if Hazareesingh is not in the top order of narrative historians, he has used his expertise and skill as a historian to do justice to Toussaint Louverture's story.
Sudhir Hazareesingh has certainly made every effort to do that life justice. His research is comprehensive and impeccable, and the scholarship on show here cannot be faulted.
It is a largely positive portrait of the man, but Hazareesingh backs that up with evidence that casts doubt on some of the more negative interpretations of earlier biographies.
Although little is known about his earliest years, Hazareesingh has mined the sources that we do have to build a portrait full of interesting detail and managed to allow this reader to get a grasp on who Toussaint was.
His writing I feel though falls short of the epic. I know that perhaps that is not what he was striving for, but at times this account of an amazing life needed a few more narrative flourishes. There is no need to embellish the facts of course, but some of the drama of his life felt a little flattened.
It is not a book you can race through then, and there is a lot of detail of Louverture's military campaigns that may be essential to the biography, but don't necessarily cast much light on him as an individual.
Hazareesingh is very good though on Toussaint's complicated relationship with his French imperial masters, and he makes a convincing argument that he was striking out as far as he could given the military threat from Napoleon and France, even if in the end he was not the man who finally took Haiti to full independence.
It is good to see that Louverture is now rightly celebrated, and Hazareesingh closes the book with two sections about his cultural impact, ranging from his inclusion in one of Wordsworth's poems to the music of his fellow Haitian Wyclef Jean. These are worthwhile and interesting additions to the life.
This is well worth reading then. Even if Hazareesingh is not in the top order of narrative historians, he has used his expertise and skill as a historian to do justice to Toussaint Louverture's story.
February 15, 2022
An engaging biography of a figure who is both fascinating and significant. It also doubles as a fairly thorough history of the Haitian revolution, of which I knew next-to-nothing. It's a bit unnerving, really, to have had such a major gap in my knowledge. Here you have not just a successful slave rebellion (which was about where my awareness of the event ended), but a rebellion that culminates in a government built on enlightenment principles that attempts to build a stable country across racial lines. That it was ill-fated because of outside intervention is to the West's great shame.
In any case, the book itself is excellent, and Hazareesingh is intimately familiar with his source material. He also writes in a lively and engagingly argumentative manner. Occasionally the book gets bogged down interrogating source material, and the early years of virtually any biography can be a bit slow going. I also wish there had been a bit closer examination of Louverture's personal life; Hazareesingh mentions his many mistresses on several occasions, but never really explores how this can be reconciled with Louverture's Christian zeal and theocratic instincts.
Still, Louverture is an inspiring figure, and there are many lessons in his life and political philosophy for the present. Here is a fine biography to learn about him.
4.5/5
In any case, the book itself is excellent, and Hazareesingh is intimately familiar with his source material. He also writes in a lively and engagingly argumentative manner. Occasionally the book gets bogged down interrogating source material, and the early years of virtually any biography can be a bit slow going. I also wish there had been a bit closer examination of Louverture's personal life; Hazareesingh mentions his many mistresses on several occasions, but never really explores how this can be reconciled with Louverture's Christian zeal and theocratic instincts.
Still, Louverture is an inspiring figure, and there are many lessons in his life and political philosophy for the present. Here is a fine biography to learn about him.
4.5/5
December 12, 2022
I finished this on a walk through the snow in London and as I walked I extended my journey to the library to find if they had another book on Louverture, which they did. If any history book can get me that interested in a topic that I want more it must be a good thing.
Cohesive, compelling, comprehensive. I am not normally a fan of history books but the history of Haiti is especially interesting and I just want to read all about it. I found that in places this was harder to follow, but in general it was really great and when I took the time with it, rather than catching a few minutes here and there, I found it much easier to follow. The reader of the audiobook was also really clear and had a nice voice to listen to. One of my few complaints is that the French quotes were not translated into the English of the rest of the text, and so any points that were being made in those parts were somewhat lost on me. If I had been sitting with the physical book I could've taken the time to translate in my head, or looked up words, but listening to an audiobook on 2x speed on a busy tube didn't ever really give me a chance to do that.
Cohesive, compelling, comprehensive. I am not normally a fan of history books but the history of Haiti is especially interesting and I just want to read all about it. I found that in places this was harder to follow, but in general it was really great and when I took the time with it, rather than catching a few minutes here and there, I found it much easier to follow. The reader of the audiobook was also really clear and had a nice voice to listen to. One of my few complaints is that the French quotes were not translated into the English of the rest of the text, and so any points that were being made in those parts were somewhat lost on me. If I had been sitting with the physical book I could've taken the time to translate in my head, or looked up words, but listening to an audiobook on 2x speed on a busy tube didn't ever really give me a chance to do that.
July 1, 2024
A diligently researched book, if a little stuffy.
I started this a total ignoramus regarding Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian Revolution, where a small island overthrew slavery in the face of European colonialism. A fascinating and important moment in collective history.
I think the author was meticulous, concise and clear, for the most part, when presenting previous arguments about Toussaint's character. However, the narrative tracking his rise from slave to a high-ranking French military figure got pretty confusing at times and I admit I struggled to keep myself straight with what was going on and who the numerous figures being referenced were.
Toussaint has been accused by critics of being suspicious of free men of colour - this was challenged in this essay, but in no way that made sense to me. I assume, in these circumstances, PoC meant mixed ethnicity, but that wasn't made clear in the book. So when the author presented his arguments to contradict this claim, I didn't really understand the points being made.
Overall, I found this book interesting but very academic, which was probably an error on my part when I was so ignorant of the subject matter.
I started this a total ignoramus regarding Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian Revolution, where a small island overthrew slavery in the face of European colonialism. A fascinating and important moment in collective history.
I think the author was meticulous, concise and clear, for the most part, when presenting previous arguments about Toussaint's character. However, the narrative tracking his rise from slave to a high-ranking French military figure got pretty confusing at times and I admit I struggled to keep myself straight with what was going on and who the numerous figures being referenced were.
Toussaint has been accused by critics of being suspicious of free men of colour - this was challenged in this essay, but in no way that made sense to me. I assume, in these circumstances, PoC meant mixed ethnicity, but that wasn't made clear in the book. So when the author presented his arguments to contradict this claim, I didn't really understand the points being made.
Overall, I found this book interesting but very academic, which was probably an error on my part when I was so ignorant of the subject matter.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 191 reviews