416 Toussaint Louverture With a Short Sketch of His Later Career New York: Paragon Book Reprint Corp., 1964; Hummel, Arthur W., ed Eminent Chinese of the Ch’ing Period (1644–1912) Washington, D.C.: U.S Government Printing Office, 1944; Wright, Mary C The Last Stand of Chinese Conservatism: The T’ung-chih Restoration, 1862–1874 Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1957 Jiu-Hwa Lo Upshur Toussaint Louverture (1744–1803) Haitian rebel leader Symbol of slaves’ struggles for freedom and dignity in the age of revolution, the onetime house slave Toussaint Louverture assumed leadership of the Haitian Revolution soon after its outbreak in August 1791 For more than a decade Toussaint led the island’s exslave insurgent forces—first as an independent rebel chieftain; then, after the French abolition of slavery on the island in 1793, on the side of the French against the British and Spanish; then, as a renegade French officer after the decision of Napoleon I to retake the island and reestablish slavery In June 1802 at the height of the French invasion, Toussaint was betrayed by his own men, turned over to Napoleon’s army, transported in chains to Brest, and then to Fort-de-Joux prison in the Jura Mountains in France Within the year he died of privation and ill-treatment, though by this time his name had become legendary in his native Saint-Domingue (Haiti) and throughout much of the Atlantic world Toussaint’s father was the son of a minor African chieftain, captured in war, sold into slavery, and transported to the French colony of Saint-Domingue, the most productive sugar-producing region in the world At the time, more than 90 percent of the approximately 30,000 African slaves imported annually into SaintDomingue toiled in the sugarcane fields and died within their first seven years Thanks to luck and the benevolence of a kind master, Toussaint’s father was among a tiny stratum of slaves who enjoyed certain freedoms and privileges He converted to Catholicism, married, and was charged with cultivating a plot of land to provision the plantation near the northern port city of Cap-Franỗois His eldest child, Toussaint Brộda as he was known, learned to read and write French and Latin, thanks to the tutelage of his godfather and neighbor, the house slave Pierre Baptiste Reading Caesar’s Commentaries, the writings of the Abbé Raynal, and other works gave Toussaint a grounding in the nature of history and the politics of empire He also became an herbalist and healer Of unusual aptitude and intelligence, he assumed key responsibilities on his master’s estate, including coachman and stock steward, and earned a reputation in the community as a man of rectitude and learning In September 1791, a month after the outbreak of the slave uprising that would engulf the island for more than a decade, “Old Toussaint” as he was known, age 45, abandoned his master’s estate and joined the rebel ranks Soon he became one of their top leaders On April 29, 1793, the French abolished slavery throughout Saint-Domingue, hoping to quell the slave uprising and more effectively prosecute the war against the British and Spanish Toussaint, who had changed his surname to Louverture (“the opening”), brought his 4,000-strong army to the French side In 1796 he was named brigadier-general, in command of all French forces on Saint-Domingue Under Toussaint’s leadership, in April 1798, the British were finally driven from the island, after a five-year campaign and at the cost of some 25,000 British lives Before departing, the British had encouraged Toussaint to rebel against the French and declare independence; he refused In February 1799 a mulatto army led by André Rigaud rebelled against Toussaint; by August 1800 Toussaint had crushed Rigaud’s rebellion Meanwhile Toussaint sought to restore some semblance of order to the island’s economy He revived its sugar plantations, compelled former slaves back to work as wage-earners, and promulgated a series of laws regarding labor, land ownership, and taxes He also established diplomatic relations with the United States Anticipating Napoleon’s invasion, he purchased some 30,000 guns from the United States and distributed them among his forces On January 26, 1801, he marched into Spanish Santo Domingo, unifying the island’s eastern and western regions He also promulgated a new constitution, permanently abolishing slavery and making Saint-Domingue effectively independent On June 7, 1802, he was betrayed and turned over to the invading French In the decades following his death in France, Toussaint’s remarkable life became the subject of songs, stories, poems, novels, plays, and oral traditions that paid homage to the honor, courage, and martyrdom of the liberator of Haiti Further Reading Dubois, Laurent Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004; ——— A Colony of