François-Dominique Toussaint L'ouverture.
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François-Dominique
Toussaint L'ouverture also Toussaint Bréda,
Toussaint-Louverture (May 20, 1743–April 8, 1803) was a leader of the Haitian Revolution. Born
in Saint Domingue, in a long struggle for independence Toussaint led
enslaved Africans to victory over Europeans, abolished slavery, and
secured native control over the colony in 1797 while nominally governor of
the colony. He expelled the French commissioner Léger-Félicité Sonthonax,
as well as the British armies; invaded Santo Domingo to free the slaves
there; and wrote a constitution naming himself governor-for-life that
established a new polity for the colony. Especially between the years 1800 and 1802, Toussaint L'ouverture tried to rebuild the collapsed economy of Haiti and reestablish commercial contacts with the United States and Britain. His last words were to his son in France, "“My boy, you will one day go back to St. Domingo; forget that France murdered your father.”
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