Raised on a plantation, Toussaint L'Ouverture was freed from enslavement in 1776. By 1791, he was training Black people in guerilla warfare tactics and joining them in the burning of plantations across the Island of Haiti!
But there’s a rumor about him that’s too troubling to ignore.
Did he enslave his own people? L’Ouverture worked his own land and that of his former enslaver. He used his smarts to become a widely respected medical doctor and shrewd military tactician. So did he enslave our people or not?
Technically, as the owner of his former enslaver’s land, he DID own the people enslaved there. But as the fight for Black independence grew more crucial, he freed them and fought alongside them to lay the groundwork for Haiti’s liberation from colonizers.
He helped write Haiti’s first constitution, which included social equity clauses and economic protection by limiting the import of goods already produced in Haiti. He inspired millions of Black people worldwide to fight against colonization by white people.
L’Ouverture led the only successful rebellion of enslaved people in recorded history due to his savvy in outsmarting and outfighting white people. Regardless of how they try to tarnish his legacy, it does nothing to diminish the fact that he showed the world how to achieve liberation through Black unity!