College of Political Knowledge
Subject: Black History
Remember a few years back there was this uproar from the radical Right about Hollywood star Danny Glover of Lethal weapon fame for his meeting with that bastard Chavez of Venezuela? Of course it was painted that he was supporting Chavez and was spitting in the face of America…consorting with our enemies and such…..the truth is the Mr. Glover wanting to do a movie and could not find financing in the US and found a sympathetic ear in Chavez….the movie was about the life of Toussaint, who according to historians lead the slave revolt in Haiti which culminated in the independence of Haiti from France……..
Now speaking of Toussaint……
February is Black History Month and I like to keep with my tradition of posting on people that may not be recognizable to the American people but nonetheless were important individuals in their own right….
The year is 1791……..after the French revolution of 1789 which did not effect the island nation all that much but in the ensuing years…….
‘Ouverture, Toussaint (c. 1743–1803), Haitian patriot and revolutionary leader. A self-educated former slave, François Dominique Toussaint-L’Ouverture joined the Haitian Revolutionin 1791 and became its foremost general, defeating both French and British forces. In 1802, he was betrayed and captured, and he died imprisoned in France.
A short history of Toussaint is from the website, historywiz.com……..
In 1789 the French Revolution rocked France. The sugar plantations of Saint Dominique, though far away, would never be the same. Spurred on by such Enlightenment thinkers as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the early moderate revolutionaries considered seriously the question of slavery. Those moderate revolutionaries were not willing to end slavery but they did apply the “Rights of Man” to all Frenchmen, including free blacks and mulattoes (those of mixed race). Plantation owners in the colonies were furious and fought the measure. Finally the revolutionaries gave in and retracted the measure in 1791.
The news of this betrayal triggered mass slave revolts in Saint Dominique, and Toussaint became the leader of the slave rebellion. He became known as Toussaint L’Ouverture (the one who finds an opening) and brilliantly led his rag-tag slave army. He successfully fought the French (who helped by succumbing to yellow fever in large numbers) as well as invading Spanish and British.
By 1803 Napoleon was ready to get Haiti off his back: he and Toussaint agreed to terms of peace. Napoleon agreed to recognize Haitian independence and Toussaint agreed to retire from public life. A few months later, the French invited Toussaint to come to a negotiating meeting will full safe conduct. When he arrived, the French (at Napoleon’s orders) betrayed the safe conduct and arrested him, putting him on a ship headed for France. Napoleon ordered that Toussaint be placed in a prison dungeon in the mountains, and murdered by means of cold, starvation, and neglect. Toussaint died in prison, but others carried on the fight for freedom.
Years later, in exile at St. Helena, when asked about his dishonorable treatment of Toussaint, Napoleon merely remarked, “What could the death of one wretched Negro mean to me?”
A sad commentary on a brave man that lead his people and his country into the light of freedom….it is equally sad that little is known about this man and his accomplishments…..maybe this post will help people understand how important this man was to Haiti and to the whole civil rights movement…..