Toussaint Louverture Timeline

Toussaint Louverture is born François Dominique Toussaint in Bréda, Saint-Domingue (now Haiti). At the time Saint-Domingue is a French colony on the island of Hispaniola. Toussaint is the son of an educated slave.

Toussaint is legally freed from slavery. He goes on to marry and have two sons.

A massive slave revolt begins in Saint-Domingue in August. Toussaint helps his former owner escape to safety, then joins his fellow Blacks in the rebellion. Unimpressed with the rebel leadership, however, Toussaint eventually forms his own army and teaches his followers guerrilla warfare.

Spain and France go to war against each other. Toussaint initially joins the Spanish forces on Hispaniola and demonstrates extraordinary military ability. He adds Louverture, a French term for “opening,” to his name. The name may refer to his ability as a military commander to find openings in enemy lines.

Toussaint changes sides in May 1794 and backs the French, citing the fact that France (unlike Spain) had recently abolished slavery. The French governor of Saint-Domingue, Étienne Laveaux, makes Toussaint lieutenant governor. The Spaniards are expelled from Saint-Domingue, and British forces occupying the coasts are weakened. Over the next year Toussaint does much to restore the economy of Saint-Domingue.

Toussaint becomes governor-general of Saint-Domingue.

Treaties with the British secure their complete withdrawal from Hispaniola.

Toussaint’s forces overrun Spanish-controlled Santo Domingo, the eastern two-thirds of Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic). Toussaint frees the slaves there and, after gaining command of the entire island, dictates a constitution that makes himself governor-general for life.

Toussaint tries to secure his position by claiming to support France, but the first consul of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, wants to reestablish control of the island. A French invasion under General Charles Leclerc begins in January 1802. Furious fighting ensues over several months. In May Toussaint formally agrees to lay down his arms in exchange for Leclerc’s promise not to restore slavery on the island. Toussaint then retires to a plantation.

Toussaint is invited to a meeting by a French general under false pretenses. With the cooperation of Leclerc and under orders from Napoleon, who suspects Toussaint of plotting an uprising, Toussaint is seized and sent to Fort-de-Joux in the French Jura Mountains, where he is confined and interrogated repeatedly.

Toussaint dies in his jail cell on April 7. One of his former lieutenants, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, leads a revolt against the French after Napoleon announces plans to reintroduce slavery to Saint-Domingue. Dessalines and his allies force the French to leave the island.

Dessalines proclaims the entire island of Hispaniola an independent country under its Arawak-derived name, Haiti. Haiti is the first country to be founded by former slaves.