Sudhir Hazareesingh explores the unique vision of revolutionary leader Toussaint Louverture, who has been a beacon for progressives for generations.

The Haitian Revolution began in the French Caribbean colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) with a slave revolt in August 1791. After the abolition of slavery in 1793, Louverture, a former enslaved person, became the leader of the colony's black population, the commander of its republican army and eventually its governor. During the course of his extraordinary life, he confronted (and for a time overcame) some of the dominant forces of his age – slavery, settler colonialism, imperialism and racial hierarchy. Treacherously seized by Napoleon's invading army in 1802, this charismatic figure ended his days, in Wordsworth's phrase, 'the most unhappy man of men', imprisoned in a fortress in France.

Louverture’s singular journey encompassed his triumphs against French, Spanish and British troops; his skilful regional diplomacy; his Machiavellian dealings with successive colonial administrators; and his bold declaration of an autonomous Constitution.

Hazareesingh shows that Louverture’s vision was developed not only in response to imported Enlightenment ideals and revolutionary events in Europe and the Americas, but through a hybrid heritage of fraternal slave culture, Caribbean mysticism and African traditions.

Sudhir Hazareesingh’s Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture is published by Allen Lane. Buy a copy from Waterstones, our bookselling partners.

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Festival of Ideas: Sudhir Hazareesingh, What Was Louverture’s Revolutionary Vision?