Toussaint Louverture, The Story Of The Slave Who Defeated Napoleon

Defeating Napoleon

Wikimedia CommonsThe 1803 Battle of Vertières, at which the rebels finally defeated Napoleon’s forces.

Napoleon sent 35,000 troops to Saint-Domingue in 1802.

The former slaves fought back and won their independence for a second time, soon inaugurating the Republic of Haiti. This made Haiti the first independent nation of the Caribbean, the only nation in the Western Hemisphere to have defeated three European superpowers (Britain, France, and Spain), and the only nation in the world established as a result of a successful slave revolt.

Yet before true independence would come, Louverture and Napoleon struck a deal: the latter agreed to recognize the island’s independence, and the former in turn agreed to retire from public life.

Events would soon turn for the worse for Toussaint Louverture. A few months later, the French invited him to a negotiation and promised his safety. But when he arrived, the army (under Napoleon’s orders) arrested him, putting him on a ship headed for France.

When Louverture arrived, Napoleon ordered that he be placed in a dungeon in the Alps, where he died on April 7, 1803.

Library of CongressThe death of Toussaint Louverture in 1803.

In a cruel turn of events, six months later Napoleon decided to give up his New World possessions and instead focus his efforts on his European empire. Haiti had its independence back.

This, too, came at a cost. In the years following Haitian independence, European powers did not recognize the republic and France eventually succeeded in levying a crippling tax on Haiti as the price of its independence.

Ever since, Western powers have continued to meddle in Haitian political life right up until the present, often with devastatingly negative consequences: today, the island nation is one of the poorest countries in the world, with 80 percent of residents living below the poverty line.

Only time will tell whether the spirit of Toussaint Louverture will again arise and bring Haiti once more to the forefront of the oppressed’s struggle for justice and freedom.

After learning about Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian Revolution, read up on four little-known American slave revolts that helped bring about the Civil War. Then, have a look at the most inspiring one-person protests in history.

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