Being the offspring of Gaou Guinou, a then valuable member of the plantation’s workforce, allowed the siblings to work in the manor house and stables, away from the grueling physical labor and deadly corporal punishment out in the sugarcane fields. 

As a youth Toussaint was puny which earned him the nickname of Fatras-Bâton meaning Feeble Stick, but on the plantation, everyone called him Toussaint. As a trained domestic, he was often at the Big House and enjoyed special treatment.

Toussaint was made to develop great skills in natural medicine, eventually becoming a veterinarian, which in those days meant that he was a slave health caregiver as well. His medical knowledge is attributed to a familiarity with the folk medicine of the African plantation slaves and Creole communities, as well as more formal techniques found in the hospitals founded by the Jesuits.

Toussaint proved very bright and extremely disciplined, hardening himself physically by becoming a superb equestrian and horse trainer. Toussaint spoke Fon, the language of the Allada people, Kréyòl the language of Saint Domingue or Saint Domingois, and rudimentary French which he was taught by his godfather Pierre Baptiste. He was an avid reader and eventually became quite fluent in the colonial languages of the time. Toussaint’s future letters would demonstrate a moderate familiarity with Epictetus, the Stoic philosopher who had lived as a slave and his public speeches showed a familiarity with Machiavelli and Enlightenment thinker Abbé Raynal, a French critic of slavery.

Toussaint later received a degree of theological education from the Jesuit and Capuchin missionaries through his church attendance and devout Catholicism. His gentle demeanor earned him the trust of his overseer François Antoine Bayon de Libertat who had become steward of the property after it was inherited by Pantaléon de Bréda Jr., son of the prior Grands Blancs white noblemen owner.

Libertat took a liking to the boy and admired his pride and guts when he would stand firm against members of the Petits-Blancs (white commoners) who worked on the plantation as hired help. Toussaint would engage in fights with them or any others who threatened the people or assets of the Bréda plantation. On one occasion, he even threw the plantation attorney Bergé off a horse belonging to the Bréda plantation when he attempted to take it outside the bounds of the property without permission.

Libertat had developed so much confidence in Toussaint that he trained him to become the coachman for his wife and children and enjoyed "Liberté de Savanne" (freedom of plantation restriction). He was allowed to go by himself outside the borders of the plantation without fear of retribution. 

Toussaint was emancipated in his early thirties in the mid-1770s by Libertat and remained loyal to him his entire life. During the slave uprising of 1791, Toussaint saved the lives of Libertat’s family by protecting them from injury and death from marauding slaves destroying plantations during the uprising. 

Upon being freed, Toussaint went from being a slave to becoming a member of the greater community of Gens de Couleur Libres (free people of color). This was a diverse group of free coloreds encompassing Black and Mulatto Affranchis (meaning freed during their lifetime). The freed Mulatto slaves would have been the offspring of French owners and their African slaves. Also in the grouping of Gens de Couleur were Black and Mulatto families who had been free for one or multiple generations.

Now enjoying a greater degree of relative freedom, Toussaint dedicated himself to building wealth and gaining further social mobility by emulating the model of the Grands Blancs and rich Gens de Couleur by becoming a planter. It is believed that Libertat assisted him by renting a small coffee plantation, along with its 13 slaves, for him to manage. 

Between 1761 and 1777, Toussaint met and married his first wife, Cécile, in a Catholic ceremony. The couple went on to have two sons, Toussaint Jr. and Gabrielle-Toussaint, and a daughter, Marie-Marthe. 

During this time, Toussaint also purchased several slaves; some to labor on his farm and others to free the remaining members of his extended family and social circle. Toussaint eventually bought the freedom of Cécile, their children, his sister Marie-Jeanne, his wife's siblings, and a slave named Jean-Baptiste, possibly a child of his godfather. 

Toussaint’s marriage soon became strained and eventually broke down as his coffee plantation failed to make adequate returns. A few years later, the newly freed Cécile left him for a wealthy Creole planter. 

Due to this economic hardship, Toussaint returned to play an important role on the Bréda plantation around 1780 and remained there until the outbreak of the revolution as a salaried employee. He looked after the livestock as the veterinarian and trained horses. By 1789, his responsibilities expanded to include acting as a muleteer, master miller, and possibly a slave driver, charged with organizing the workforce. 

While at Bréda, Toussaint married Suzanne who became his second wife. Suzanne had a son named Placide, previously fathered by Seraphim Le Clerc a Creole planter. Despite this, Placide was adopted by Toussaint and raised lovingly as his own. Toussaint and Suzanne went on to have two more sons: Isaac, born in 1784, and Saint-Jean, born in 1791. 

By the early 1790s, Toussaint began to accumulate a moderate fortune and was able to buy a small plot of land adjacent to the Bréda property to build a house for his family. There are property records showing that he had purchased or leased multiple plantations during this decade.

At the start of the Haitian revolution, Toussaint was nearly 50 years old, beginning his military career as a healer and lieutenant to Biassou, an early leader of the 1791 War for Freedom in Saint-Domingue. With Biassou and Papillon, he initially allied with the Spaniards of neighboring Santo Domingo against the French. 

When French Commissioner Léger-Félicité Sonthonax freed the island’s slaves in 1793 during the turmoil in the colony and without any apparent authority from the French Assembly to do so, Toussaint wrote a letter to the population declaring himself a fighter for the people and for the first time used the name Toussaint Louverture, shedding the name of Bréda. After many military successes, Toussaint then switched his allegiance to the French when the new Republican government of France officially abolished slavery in 1794 while Spain still legalized the practice of slavery. His comrades, Papillon and Biassou along with their armies, remained with the Spanish Colonial Army as their black auxiliaries. Toussaint’s army would later engage his old comrades and beat them on the battlefield.

Louverture gradually established military and political control over the whole island and used his influence to gain dominance over his rivals. Throughout his years in power, Toussaint worked to balance the economy and security of Saint-Domingue. Worried about the economy, which had stalled due to the constant turmoil in the colony, he restored the plantation system using paid labor; negotiated trade agreements with the United Kingdom and the United States, and maintained a large and well-trained army. 

Although Louverture did not sever ties with France in 1800 after defeating rival leaders among the Haitian revolutionary population and dominating French bureaucrats sent to administer the government, he promulgated an autonomous constitution for the colony in 1801 that named him as Governor-General for Life, against Napoleon Bonaparte's prior knowledge or wishes.

Realizing that France had lost operational control and a solid tax revenue base, Napoleon Bonaparte launched The Saint-Domingue expedition under his brother-in-law, General Charles Victor Emmanuel Leclerc, in an attempt to regain French control of the Caribbean colony and reinstitute slavery to return it to the productive economy it was. After initial success, due to their overwhelming military manpower and assets deployed, they pressured Toussaint Louverture to enter retirement.

In 1802, Toussaint was invited to a parley by French Divisional General Jean-Baptiste Brunet but was arrested upon his arrival. He was deported to France and jailed at the Fort de Joux prison, a bitter cold institution in the French Alps. He died as a prisoner in 1803. 

The Haitian Revolution continued under Louverture's lieutenant, Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Although Louverture died before the final and most violent stage of the Haitian Revolution, his achievements set the ground for the Haitian army's final victories. 

Suffering massive losses in multiple battles at the hands of the Haitian army and losing thousands of men in battles and to yellow fever, the French capitulated and withdrew permanently from Saint-Domingue in 1803, the very same year as Toussaint’s death. Jean-Jacques Dessalines declared independence on January 1, 1804, thereby establishing the sovereign state of Haiti.

Economy of Saint Domingue

 As the French Ancien Régime (Old Regime) reached its end between 1788 and 1789, St. Domingue, the western part of the island of Hispaniola which is now the country of Haiti, was considered the world’s most productive and valuable industrial plantation economy and was called the “Pearl of the Antilles” due to its wealth.

Saint Domingue exported 72 million pounds of raw sugar and 51 million pounds of refined sugar which accounted for 40% of all sugar consumed in Europe; plus 1 million pounds of indigo, 2 million pounds of cotton, and 60% of all the coffee consumed in the entire world. The Colony employed 1.587 great vessels and 24.000 sailors. At any given time, there would be over 60 ships in the port of Cap-Français alone.

Saint Domingue's exports were larger than that of the entire American colonies combined and worth far more than the golds of Brazil or the silver of Mexico and kept the entire navy of France in business. It became the jewel of the French Colonial Empire and supplied France with over half of the wealth it derived from all its colonies combined! The livelihood of millions of inhabitants of Europe depended directly on the colonial trade centered in Saint Domingue.

Dependent upon half a million African and Creole slaves, its 3,097 indigo, 2,810 coffee, 792 large sugar, and 705 cotton plantations; Saint Domingue produced today’s monetary equivalent of $65 billion US per year; $5.5 billion per month; or $219 million per day worth of commodities destined for both Continental Europe and the United States of America.

Comparative 2020 GDP numbers of the US would put the colony slightly above Rhode Island ($63 billion) and under Maine ($69 billion). However, considering the colony’s small population of 578,000 (inclusive of 500,000 slaves), the per capita GDP would have come to $112,456; nearly double the $65,280 per capita GDP of the United States. This massive wealth was the revenue of the less than 100,000 free population and would have resulted in an annual per capita income of over half a million dollars per free man, woman, and child. 

Between 1763 and 1789, the colony’s export exceeded those of all colonies combined and was the driving force behind the French "commercial revolution" of the second half of the 18th century. French plantation owners hailing from Nantes, Bordeaux, Paris, La Rochelle, Bayonne, and the Loire Valley found dynastic fortunes in St. Domingue.

The names of my ancestors and historical figures are real and the book follows an accurate historical timeline of events during the period, however, I cannot confirm their actions exactly as I relate them or attribute personal thoughts as I envision and write them to be. This is the challenge and reward that comes with filling in the blanks of history.

I do not attempt to be entirely accurate but intend to utilize these fascinating events as cornerstones of a story and interject persons of interest within context. I hope you enjoy this enlightening and exciting glimpse of heretofore untold history. 

Daniel J.D. Bayard