Toussaint Louverture

Born into slavery in the French controlled island of Saint Dominque, Toussaint L'Ouverture would go on to become a major leader of the Haitian revolution. Although he was able to secure his own freedom before, L'Ouverture would join the slave revolt after the August 22, 1791 “Night of Fire.” He fought with insurgency first aligned with the Spanish, then aligned with France which had promised citizenship and freedom to all Black people within the French empire in 1794. After this alignment with France, which was trying to secure its colonial hold, he became a military leader. By 1801, he was the leader of Saint Dominque, which was still a French colony but he reaffirmed the abolishment of slavery and was leading as if the colony were independent. This led to Napoleon dispatching the Saint-Domingue expedition which had the intention of capturing L'Ouverture and re-establishing slavery in the colony. While they did capture L'Ouverture and had some initial success, the French were defeated in December 1803. Sadly L'Ouverture died of pneumonia on April 7, 1803 in the French prison Fort de Joux without living to see Haiti become the first independent nation in Latin America, the first post-colonial independent black-led nation in the world, and the only nation whose independence was gained as part of a successful slave rebellion.