Toussaint Louverture: the Haitian Slave Leader

Toussaint Louverture was one of the liberators of Haiti. After the insurrection, he joined the insurgents, and, having acquired some knowledge of surgery and medicine, acted as physician to the forces. In 1796 he was named commander-in-chief of the armies of St Domingo, but, having raised and disciplined a powerful army of blacks, he made himself master of the whole country, renounced the authority of France, and announced himself "the Buonaparte of St Domingo." He was taken prisoner by treachery on the part of France, and died in the prison of Joux, near Besançon, 27th April 1803.