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Toussaint Louverture
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Toussaint Louverture stands in a military uniform with a feathered hat, holding a document and sword, with soldiers and a landscape in the background.
Toussaint Louverture: Liberator and Leader of Haiti
Toussaint Louverture Toussaint L'Ouverture Toussaint Louverture Napoleon Bonaparte Engraving of Emperor Jean-Jacques Dessalines of Haiti in a blue military uniform with gold trim, shown from the waist up in an oval frame above a name plaque. Engraving depicting Haitians and French troops fighting with rifles and bayonets during the Haitian Revolution in 1803, with smoke and chaos in the background.
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Toussaint L'Ouverture
Toussaint Louverture Timeline
Engraving depicting Haitians and French troops fighting with rifles and bayonets during the Haitian Revolution in 1803, with smoke and chaos in the background.
Toussaint Louverture’s Achievements
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Frontispiece and title page of Phillis Wheatley's book of poetry, "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral" 1773. Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753-1784). African American slave. Black woman poet.
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Toussaint Louverture stands in a military uniform with a feathered hat, holding a document and sword, with soldiers and a landscape in the background.
Toussaint Louverture A formerly enslaved person who became the leading figure of the Haitian Revolution, Toussaint Louverture helped lay the foundation for Haiti's independence.

Toussaint Louverture

Haitian leader
Also known as: François Dominique Toussaint, Toussaint L’Ouverture(Show More)
Written by
John E. Fagg
Professor of History, New York University, New York City, 1946–81. Author of Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic; Latin America: A General History, and others.
John E. Fagg
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Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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Toussaint Louverture (born c. 1743, Bréda, near Cap-Français, Saint-Domingue [Haiti]—died April 7, 1803, Fort-de-Joux, France) was a leader of the Haitian independence movement during the French Revolutionary era (1787–99), part of the broader wave of Atlantic revolutions that reshaped political authority and social hierarchies in the late 18th century. He played a central role in transforming a large slave revolt in the French colony of Saint-Domingue on the island of Hispaniola (later Haiti) into a...

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