Black Spartacus : the epic life of Toussaint Louverture / Sudhir Hazareesingh.
Publication details: London : Penguin Books, 2021.Description: xxvii, 427 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly colour), maps, portraits (chiefly colour) ; 20 cmISBN:- 9780141985060
- 972.9403092 23/eng/20220110
Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item reserves | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Book | Melbourne Athenaeum Library | Biography | 972.94 HAZ | Available | 071333 |
Originally published by Allen Lane: 2020.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
The Haitian Revolution began in the French Caribbean colony of Saint-Domingue with a slave revolt in August 1791, and culminated a dozen years later in the proclamation of the world's first independent black state. After the abolition of slavery in 1793, Toussaint Louverture, himself a former slave, became the leader of the colony's black population, the commander of its republican army and eventually its governor. During the course of his extraordinary life he confronted some of the dominant forces of his age - slavery, settler colonialism, imperialism and racial hierarchy. Treacherously seized by Napoleon's invading army in 1802, this charismatic figure ended his days, in Wordsworth's phrase, 'the most unhappy man of men', imprisoned in a fortress in France. Black Spartacus draws on a wealth of archival material, much of it overlooked by previous biographers, to follow every step of Louverture's singular journey, from his triumphs against French, Spanish and British troops to his skilful regional diplomacy, his Machiavellian dealings with successive French colonial administrators and his bold promulgation of an autonomous Constitution.