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TOUSSAINT
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TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE (or LOUVERTURE), See also:PIERRE-DOMINIQUE (c. 1746-1803), one of the liberators of See also:Haiti, claimed to be descended from an See also:African See also:chief, his See also:father, a slave in Haiti, being the chief's second son. He was at first surnamed See also:Breda, but this was afterwards changed to L'Ouverture in token of the results of his valour in causing a See also:gap in the ranks of the enemy. From childhood he manifested unusual abilities and succeeded, by making the utmost use of every opportunity, in obtaining a remarkably See also:good See also:education. He obtained the See also:special confidence of his See also:master, and was made See also:superintendent of the other negroes on the See also:plantation. After the insurrection of 1791 he joined the insurgents, and, having acquired some knowledge of See also:surgery and See also:medicine, acted asphysician to the forces. His rapid rise in See also:influence aroused, however, the See also:jealousy of See also:Jean See also:Francois, who caused his See also:arrest on the ground of his partiality to the whites. He was liberated by the See also:rival insurgent chief Baisson, and a See also:partisan See also:war ensued, but after the See also:death of Baisson he placed himself under the orders of Jean Francois. Subsequently he joined the Spaniards, but, when the See also:French See also:government ratified the See also:act declaring the freedom of the slaves, he came to the aid of the French. In 1796 he was named See also:commander-in-chief of the armies of St Domingo, but, having raised and disciplined a powerful See also:army of blacks, he made himself master of the whole See also:country, renounced the authority of See also:France, and announced himself " the Buonaparte of St Domingo." He was taken prisoner by treachery on the See also:part of France, and died in the See also:prison of Joux, near See also:Besancon, on the 27th of See also:April 1803. See Toussaint 1'Ouverture's own Memoires, with a See also:life by See also:Saint Remy; (See also:Paris, 185o); Gragnon-Laconte, Toussaint Louverture (Paris, 1887) ; Scholcher, See also:Vie de Toussaint Louverture (Paris,1889); and J. R. See also:Beard, Life of Toussaint Louverture (1853). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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