Toussaint Louverture

This book is the long-overdue publication in English of Aimé Césaire’s account of Toussaint Louverture, the legendary leader of the revolution in Saint-Domingue – a slave revolt against French colonial rule that led to the founding of the independent republic of Haiti.  Saint-Domingue was the first country in modern times to confront the colonial question in practice and in all its complexity.  When Toussaint Louverture burst onto the historical stage, various political movements already existed for political autonomy,  free trade and social equality.  But the French Revolution established a compelling understanding of universal liberty: the Declaration of Human Rights opened up the possibility of claims to liberty and equality by wealthy free Black men in the colony, claims which, when they could not be realized, led to the armed uprising of enslaved Blacks.  A battle for the liberation of one class in colonial society resulted in a revolution to achieve equal rights for all men. And