Toussaint louverture timeline

What eventually happened to toussaint?

We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. Forming an army of former slaves and deserters from the French and Spanish armies, he trained his followers in guerrilla warfare and successfully ended slavery in Hispaniola by It is believed his father was Gaou Guinou, the younger son of the king of Allada, a West African kingdom.

His family was sold into slavery and sent to the Caribbean. Toussaint was fortunate to be owned by enlightened masters who allowed him to learn to read and write.

Why was toussaint l'ouverture important

He read the classics and the Enlightenment political philosophers, who deeply influenced him. He also developed a deep devotion to the teachings of Catholicism. Intelligent and hardworking, Toussaint became an expert in medicinal plants and horsemanship. It is said that he was given his freedom in , the same year the United States declared its independence from Great Britain.

Toussaint continued to work for his former owner and married Suzanne Simone Baptiste in The couple had three children: Placide, Isaac and Saint-Jean. On August 22, , slaves rebelled in the French colony of Saint-Domingue on the western half of Hispaniola. Inspired by the French Revolution , and angered by generations of abuse, slaves began slaughtering whites with impunity.

He was nearly fifty years-old and married with a family, farming a small plot of land and running a plantation for his former master. But the rebellion began to expand and eventually it migrated to where Toussaint was living.