Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture

… expertly crafted … brings a fresh interpretation to the man himself, while dancing skillfully around the more controversial—and unsavory—aspects of his rule during the years spanning the Haitian Revolution of 1791 and the Haitian War of Independence in 1802 … While there are gaps in Louverture’s early historical record, Hazareesingh creatively addresses this research obstacle by expanding on the social and cultural history of Saint-Domingue, giving us a glimpse into the world that shaped juvenile Toussaint … Perhaps the most effective way to deal with the messier aspects of Louverture—his owning of slaves, his later authoritarian acts, and even his white mistresses—is to approach the intellectual interiority of the man, which is exactly what Hazareesingh does in fascinating detail. Using recently uncovered documents in British, French, and Spanish archives, he dives into the deep pool of Louverture’s mind … a well-written, if slightly hagiographic, addition to Louverture historiography. With a wealth of previously undiscovered documents shedding modern delicate on his beliefs and intellectual passions, we get a bit closer to this intriguing man who helped free a nation.

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