Summary
Summary
Toussaint Louverture's life was one of hardship, triumph, and contradiction. He was born a slave on Saint-Domingue yet earned his freedom and established himself as a small-scale planter. He even purchased slaves of his own.Philippe Girard shows how Louverture transformed himself from lowly freedman into revolutionary hero as the mastermind of the bloody slave revolt of 1791. By 1801, Louverture was governor of the colony where he had once been a slave. But his lifelong quest to be accepted as a member of the colonial elite ended in despair: he spent the last year of his life in a French prison cell. His example nevertheless inspired anticolonial and black nationalist movements well into the twentieth century.Based on voluminous primary-source research, conducted in archives across the world and in multiple languages, Toussaint Louverture is the definitive biography of one of the most influential men in history.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Girard, professor of history at McNeese State University, lucidly reveals how Toussaint Louverture led a remarkable life even in comparison with the other leaders of the Age of Revolutions. Born into slavery in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, Louverture grew up speaking the Fon language of Benin and, most likely, practicing his parents' Vodou traditions. Louverture was enslaved until he was almost 50, but in the final decade of his life he became a guerrilla fighter, general, diplomat, planter, and head of state before dying as Napoleon's prisoner in France. As Saint-Domingue became the black republic of Haiti, Louverture presided over a revolution that was significantly more radical-in both ideals and practice-than the American and French uprisings that helped inspire it. Girard's study, based on extensive research in European archives, succeeds in relating Louverture's extraordinary life in its many and often contradictory aspects. It also conveys how he became an inspiration to abolitionists, civil rights activists, and anticolonial rebels worldwide without obscuring "the complexities of the Revolution he had to navigate and the skill he displayed in doing so." Girard's intelligent and graceful work offers a detailed account of Louverture's experiences and achievements, as well as a laudable overview of the revolution he helped create and sustain. Agent: Paul Lucas, Janklow & Nesbit. (Dec.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Choice Review
There has been an explosion of published scholarship on Haiti in the last decade. These products have greatly advanced the study of the early history of the Haitian Republic, and especially of the only successful rebellion ever by slaves. Despite such a research bonanza, the world has for too long lacked a modern, comprehensive biography of Toussaint--the enigmatic, complex, sometime-mystical stimulator of the rebellion. Historian Girard (McNeese State Univ.) now adds his own impressive acquaintance with the best of Haitian scholarship to the work of others to provide a balanced life of Haiti's originator. In his book, Toussaint becomes the quintessential transitional figure who sought as much to join the French as he wanted to oust them from Saint-Domingue. He could never understand why Napoleon insisted on persecuting and imprisoning someone like himself, who mostly wanted to be embraced by Napoleon as an overseas hero of the French revolution. It took Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Louverture's successor, to turn the rebellion into a revolution, to exterminate most of the remaining whites, to declare Haiti black, and to "complete" what Louverture--a very different and more nuanced person--had begun. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. --Robert I. Rotberg, Harvard University
Library Journal Review
The central figure of the Haitian Revolution of 1791, Toussaint Louverture has long been worshipped both in Haiti and beyond as an icon of abolitionism. The reality that materializes in this lucid, deeply researched biography is more complex. Born into slavery circa 1743, Louverture was nearly 50 years old and a freedman when the only successful slave revolt in history erupted in the French colony of Saint-Domingue. Over time, Louverture revealed himself to be a skillful politician and military commander, dispatching his rivals one by one, on his way to becoming governor-general of the colony. He then turned his attention to rebuilding the plantation sector, which the revolution had reduced to ashes. The repressive labor system he imposed differed little from slavery and did nothing to endear him to the masses of black workers. After drawing the wrath of Napoléon, Louverture was arrested and shipped with his family to France, where he died, but not before composing his own account of the revolution. Paul Woodson's narration is clear if a bit affected, with decent but inconsistent French pronunciation. VERDICT Readers will appreciate this nuanced portrait of a great man who even now has not received the credit he is due. ["A compelling look at an extraordinary historical figure. Recommended for anyone interested in revolutionary and/or Caribbean history": LJ 9/15/16 review of the Basic: Perseus hc.]-Erin -Hollaway-Palmer, Richmond © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.