At the end of the 1700s, French Saint Domingue was the richest and most brutal colony in the Western Hemisphere. A mere twelve years later, however, Haitian rebels had defeated the Spanish, British, and French and declared independence after the first—and only—successful slave revolt in history. Much of the success of the revolution must be credited to one man, Toussaint Louverture, a figure about whom surprisingly little is known. In this fascinating biography, Madison Smartt Bell, award-winning author of a trilogy of novels that investigate Haiti’s history, combines a novelist’s passion with a deep knowledge of the historical milieu that produced the man labeled a saint, a martyr, or a clever opportunist who instigated one of the most violent events in modern history. The first biography in English in over sixty years of the man who led the Haitian Revolution, this is an engaging reexamination of the controversial, paradoxical leader.
Toussaint Louverture (Vintage)
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“A brilliant and truly gripping biography.” —The New York Review of Books“Epic. . . .The best biography of Toussaint yet.” —The New York Times Book Review“Bell has stripped away the myths—demonology as well as hagiography—to give us a nuanced, sympathetic portrait of a complicated, tragic, but undeniably heroic figure.” —Minneapolis Star-Tribune“An excellent introduction to one of the great, if elusive, personalities of history.” —The Boston Review
About the Author
Madison Smartt Bell has published twelve novels and two collections of short stories. His novels include Soldier's Joy, Dr. Sleep, Ten Indians, and Save Me, Joe Louis. His eighth novel, All Souls' Rising, was a finalist for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award. Bell, a Professor of English and Director of the Kratz Center for Creative Writing at Goucher College, lives in Maryland with his family.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Welcome Biography by Outstanding Novelist of Haiti,
By
This review is from: Toussaint Louverture: A Biography (Hardcover)
Bell brings a writer's touch and deep empathy to the life of this towering but long-neglected 18th-Century black revolutionary. The biography is straight-foward, detailed, judicious and as well-researched as could be, considering the paucity of available primary sources on its subject's life. Particularly helpful are the careful placement of the Haitian revolution against the background of the French revolution, without loss of focus on the strategic brilliance (and weaknesses) of the book's central character.
Bell's is a much-needed corrective to the standard but outdated treatment of Toussaint L'Overture by the Caribbean Marxist writer C.L.R. James, whose work on L'Overture in now more than 60 years old. Bell treats the island's complicated race relations and the interaction of the Roman Catholic and Voudo religions with a remarkable depth and sensitivity, which he had already demonstrated in much greater depth in his acclaimed trilogy of novels on the Haitian revolution. He has done us a favor by taking up the biographer's pen, in place of the novelist's. The book would have benefitted from a list of characters and a few better maps. And one aches to have more on the effect of the Haitian revolt on the early American republic, diplomacy, slave relations, abolitionism, the Louisiana Purchase, subsequent Haitian history, and so on, those these have been treated at least to some extent in other English-language sources.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Master of the Crossroads,
By
This review is from: Toussaint Louverture: A Biography (Hardcover)
Well known for his trilogy of historical novels chronicling Haiti's struggle for independence from France (ALL SOUL'S RISING, MASTER Of The CROSSROADS, and THE STONE THAT The BUILDER REFUSED), author Madison Smartt Bell is familiar with the primary and academic sources on the people and events that led that country through its chaotic and bloody triumph to becoming the first black state in the Western Hemisphere. Of those men, the most important of all was Toussaint Louverture.
Madison Smartt Bell's TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE: A BIOGRAPHY is a necessary addition to a subject only few have dared to take on. As a biography it provides a sober and ubiased account of the former slave and self-taught veterinarian who, at age 50, would also prove himself a brilliant leader and military genius. Unlike most others who've written about the man, Bell provides much detail on Louverture's early life and ambitions. He presents a Louverture who was shrewd (the man ably manipulated the interests of both the British and the Spaniards) and level-headed, but who was also just and often disgusted by the bloody excesses of the slaves' rebellion. What makes this such an excellent work is in the way Madison Smartt Bell fleshes out Louverture's world with an indepth look into the various social classes and ethnic groups of Saint Domingue, the role religion and spiritualism played in the daily lives of the slaves and the strong influence of Voudoun on the rebellion--something that, depending on the situation, Louverture would either persecute or encourage. By highlighting the social and ethnic groupings of upper-class white landowners ("grand blancs"), lower-class white laborers and merchants ("petit blancs"), those of mixed race ("gens de coleur"), freed blacks, and the slaves, Bell shows how each one was antogonistic towards all the others and makes a strong point of presenting Haiti's war of independence as something much more complex than a slave uprising. Highly recommended.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An important and interesting read,
By
This review is from: Toussaint Louverture: A Biography (Hardcover)
Toussaint Louverture who lived from roughly 1744 to 1803 was the preeminent leader of Haitian independence, a model of a rebel, and a paradox of a person. He was a self educated slave who was freed shortly before his uprising in 1791. In 1793 he allied himself with the Spanish against the French but later changed sides and fought alongside revolutionary France, whose Jacobins had freed the slaves in 1793, to help expel the English who Toussaint noted had not freed the slaves of their colonies. By 1799 he was master of the island and was forced to put down a rebellion by mixed-blood freedmen (known variously as `mullatto' or `coloured'). By 1801 he was in charge of the whole island but the next year Napoleon sent an army to wrest it back to France. Toussaint was kidnapped and whisked away to die in France while his former slaves fought on and eventually gained independence in 1804, only the second independent country in the New World and one of only a few independent black countries in the world.
This book is a very readable masterpiece of writing drawing mostly on secondary sources to flesh out the fascinating life of the former slave and rebel leader. The story pays close attention to the class and ethnic destinctions on the island, showing the great degree of animosity between the French, the creoles, the free Gens De Colouer (coloreds) and runaway slaves. This is a fascinating portrait of the New World, the Carribean, a French colony and slave life and rebellion. Toussaint was an ardent Catholic and persecuted Voodou. The last chapter is a lively discussion of the problems Haiti has faced since the time of Toussaint, a story that can also be found in `Why the Cocks fight'. A riveting and important book. Seth J. Frantzman
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