Toussaint l'Ouverture

Toussaint l'Ouverture (a surname added for his bravery in once making a breach in the ranks of the enemy), one of the liberators of Hayti, was born a slave in 1743, joined the negro insurgents in 1791, and at length in 1795, for his services against the Spaniards, was made by the French Convention general of brigade, in 1797 general of division, and a little later chief of the army of San Domingo. Soon after he cleared the British and Spaniards entirely out of the island, quickly restored order and prosperity, and about 1800 began to aim at independence of France. Bonaparte having, after the peace of Amiens, proclaimed the re-establishment of slavery in San Domingo, Toussaint declined to obey, whereupon General Le Clerc was sent with a strong fleet to compel him. The liberator soon submitted, but was treacherously arrested, sent to France, and flung into a damp, dark dungeon at Fort de Joux, near Besançon, where he sank after ten months, April 27, 1803. See his own Mémoires (1853), and Lives, also in French, by Saint-Rémy (1850), Gragon-Lacoste (1877), and Schœlcher (1889).