Sudhir Hazareesingh - Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture

Toussaint Louverture, hand-coloured lithograph by Nicolas-Eustache Maurin, published by F. S. Delpech, 1832, Free Library of Philadelphia, John Frederick Lewis Portrait Collection (photo: Bridgeman Images).

Detail from a topographical map of Saint-Domingue, 1760 (photo: Bibliothque nationale de France, dpartement Cartes et plans).

(top) A sugar refinery, colourized version of an original illustration from Denis Diderot, Encyclopdie, ou Dictionnaire Raisonn des Sciences, des Arts et des Mtiers, 1762, vol. 1, plate I (photo: City of Vancouver Archives, British Columbia Sugar Refining Fonds); (bottom) slaves working in the yard of a plantation in the West Indies, colourized version of an original illustration from Jean-Baptiste Du Tertre, Histoire Gnrale des Antilles habites par les Franois, 1667 (photo: Leonard de Selva/Bridgeman Images).

The French part of the Isle of Saint-Domingue in 1789, map by Daniel Derveaux, c. 1930s, based on an eighteenth-century original by G. Delisle (photo: Archives Charmet/Bridgeman Images).

(top) The Burning of the Town of Cap Franais on 21 June 1793, coloured engraving by Jean-Baptiste Chapuy after Jean-Louis Boquet (photo: Archives Charmet/Bridgeman Images); (bottom) Decree of the National Convention Abolishing Slavery in 1794, drawing attributed to Nicolas-Andr Monsiau, Muse Carnavalet, Paris (photo: Paris Muses).

(top left) Lger-Flicit Sonthonax, portrait by an unknown artist, Muse du Panthon National Hatien, Port-au-Prince (photo: MUPANAH ); (top right) Gabriel Hdouville, portrait by Jean-Baptiste Paulin Gurin, Chteau de Versailles (photo: RMN -Grand Palais (Chteau de Versailles)/Grard Blot/Jean Schormans); (bottom left) Thomas Maitland, portrait by John Hoppner, Thirlestane Castle, Lauder (photo: Christies/Bridgeman Images); (bottom right) Charles Emmanuel Leclerc, portrait by Franois Joseph Kinson, Chteau de Versailles (photo: RMN -Grand Palais (Chteau de Versailles)/Grard Blot).

(top left) Isaac Louverture, portrait by an unknown artist, Muse du Panthon National Hatien (photo: Fonds Jacques de Cauna, MUPANAH , 2003); (top right) Placide Louverture, portrait by an unknown artist, Muse du Panthon National Hatien (photo: Fonds Jacques de Cauna, MUPANAH , 2003); (bottom left) Louise Chancy, portrait by Sjour Legros, 1821, Muse du Panthon National Hatien (photo: Fonds Jacques de Cauna, MUPANAH , 2003); (bottom right) Toussaint Louverture, portrait by Louis Rigaud, 1877, Yale Center for British Art. Lent by Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History (photo: Yale Center for British Art).

Thodore Gricault, pisode de la Guerre Coloniale: Noir sur un cheval cabr, 181819 (photo: Christies/Bridgeman Images).

Toussaint Louverture on his horse Bel-Argent, drawing by Denis-Alexandre Volozan, c. 18001825, Muse dAquitaine, Bordeaux (photo: JM Arnaud, mairie de Bordeaux).

The Oath of the Ancestors, painting by Guillaume Guillon-Lethire, 1822, formerly Muse National dHati, now Muse du Panthon National Hatien, Port-au-Prince (photo: RMN -Grand Palais/Grard Blot).

(top) Toussaint Louverture on horseback, painting by Jacob Lawrence, no. 32 in the series The Life of Toussaint LOuverture, 1938, Aaron Douglas Collection, Amistad Research Center, New Orleans The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society ( ARS ), New York and DACS , London 2020 (photo: Amistad Research Center); (bottom) Toussaint lOuverture, Haiti, painting by William H. Johnson, c. 1945. Smithsonian American Art Museum. Gift of the Harmon Foundation (photo: SAAM ).

Toussaint Emanating Yellow, painting by Edouard Duval-Carri, 2008 (photo Edouard Duval-Carri, reproduced by kind permission of the artist).

(top) stamp commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Haitian revolution, issued in Haiti, 1954 (photo: Wolfgang Windel, Haiti Philatelic Society); (middle row, left) stamp commemorating the bicentenary of Toussaints death, issued in Haiti, 2003 (photo: Wolfgang Windel, Haiti Philatelic Society); (middle row, centre) stamp depicting Toussaint, issued in Dahmomey, 1963 (photo: Hipstamps/J. Freedom Stamps); (middle row, right) pictorial cancellation commemorating the death of Toussaint, issued at Pontarlier, near Fort de Joux, France, 1991 (photo: Wolfgang Windel, Haiti Philatelic Society); (bottom) first day cover commemorating the bicentenary of the slave revolution, issued in Cuba, 1991 (photo: Wolfgang Windel, Haiti Philatelic Society).

(top) 10-gourde silver coin featuring Toussaint, minted in Haiti, 1968 (photo: Heritage Auctions); (middle) 2,500-franc coin commemorating the bicentenary of the 1807 Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, minted in Senegal, 2007 (photo: Allnumis); (bottom) 20-gourde note, issued in Haiti, 2001 (photo: private collection).

(top left) front cover of the first English edition of Alejo Carpentiers The Kingdom of This World, 1957; (top right) cover of the programme for the Talawa Theatre Companys production of C. L. R. Jamess play The Black Jacobins, 1968, V&A Theatre & Performance Collection, London (photo: Talawa Theatre Company); (bottom) poster for the film Toussaint Louverture, directed by Philippe Niang, 2012 (photo: Eloa Prod/La Petite Reine/France Tlvision).

(top left) statue of Toussaint, c. 1989, Allada, Benin; (top right) bust of Toussaint by James Mastin, 2002, Fort de Joux, France (photo: Christophe Finot); (bottom left) statue of Toussaint by Ousmane Sow, 2014, Muse du Nouveau Monde, La Rochelle, France (photo: Julien Chauvet); (bottom right) bust of Toussaint by Dominique Dennery, 2017, Parc Toussaint-Louverture, Montreal, Canada (photo: Alain Quevillon).

Bwa Kayiman Haiti, painting by Nicole Jean-Louis, c. 2010 ( Nicole Jean-Louis).

. Front page of Affiches Amricaines, 25 December 1784 (photo: University of Florida Library).

. Title-page of Code Noir, 1743 edition (photo: AF Fotografie/Alamy).

. Toussaint reading Raynal and Diderots Histoire philosophique des Deux Indes, illustration from John R. Beard, The Life of Toussaint LOuverture: The Negro Patriot of Hayti, 1853 edition (photo: Harvard University Library).

. Incendie de la Plaine du Cap Massacre des Blancs par les Noirs, 22 Aot 1791, illustration from France Militaire, 1833 (photo: Heritage Images/Alamy).

. Opening page of Rcit historique by Gabriel Le Gros, 1793. Archives Nationales, Paris (photo: University of Florida Library).

. Sonthonaxs Proclamation of the Abolition of Slavery, in kreyl, 29 August 1793. (photo: Centre historique des Archives nationales).