Toussaint L’Ouverture - A Freedom Fighter

Portrait of Toussaint L’OuvertureVincent Ogé spurred the uprising of several factions. The black rebels, led by General Toussaint L’Ouverture, desired independence from slavery and allied themselves with whoever agreed to make that a reality. 

Though France tried to initially placate L’Ouverture by putting him in charge of expelling British forces in 1798, they quickly placed checks on his power and forced him to resign soon after (just one year before the French Republic fell to Napoleon in 1799). In response, L’Ouverture led an army into the Dominican Republic to free and rally the support of slaves under Spanish control. 

By 1801, he and his rebels had freed the entire island of Hispaniola. L’ouverture succeeded, but began his gradual decline from glory thereafter by supporting labor codes that effectively resulted in the reinstitution of slavery. He essentially undid his biggest accomplishment by reasoning that Saint Domingue would never survive as an independent nation if it was not producing and exporting goods (regardless of the human cost), a position that led to his decline in popularity and eventual exile to France (where he died in prison in 1803). His second in command however, Jean-Jacques Dessalines (the general in chief who succeeded Toussaint Louverture) was able to maintain the support of former slaves. After leading a successful revolution against slavery and the colonial-imperial powers of Spain and France, Dessalines declared the emergence of the new, postcolonial state of Haiti on January 1st, 1804.