Toussaint

J.D. Douglas chronicles Toussaint Louverture’s years as a revolutionary, from his first meeting with vodou hougang Dutty Boukman in 1791, through to Toussaint’s rise as leader of the slave rebellion in Haiti, his sons’ (Placide and Isaac) schooling in France, until Toussaint’s death in prison in 1803. Interspersed, are Napoleon and his wife Josephine’s reaction to news of Toussaint’s victories, and Napoleon’s eventual rejection of Haitians as freed people, akin to the peasants of the French Revolution. Napoleon plots to return Haiti to slavery, and Toussaint is the man in his way.