François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture, à l'origine Toussaint de Bréda, né vers 1743 près du Cap-Français et mort en captivité le 7 avril 1803 à La Cluse-et-Mijoux, dans le département du Doubs, en France, est un général et homme politique franco-haïtien d'origine afro-caribéenne.
Descendant d'esclaves noirs, lui-même affranchi, il joue un rôle historique de premier plan en tant que chef de la Révolution haïtienne (1791-1802) et devient l'une des grandes figures des mouvements anticolonialiste, abolitionniste et d'émancipation des Noirs.
L’historiographie haïtienne ou encore l’œuvre de l’abolitionniste Victor Schœlcher ont érigé Toussaint Louverture en modèle de libérateur de l’oppression. D'autres historiens présentent une vision plus contrastée du personnage, nostalgique d’un Saint-Domingue « perle des Antilles », dans lequel il a grandi et prospéré et dont l'opposition au système colonial de l’Ancien Régime serait à nuancer. Pourtant c’est bien la Révolution qui porte cet ancien esclave noir affranchi dans les plus hautes strates du pouvoir militaire puis politique de la colonie française de Saint-Domingue jusqu'à sa chute face à l'armée du général Leclerc envoyée par le Premier consul Bonaparte qui, parallèlement, rétablit l'esclavage.
Arrêté et emmené en France, Toussaint Louverture finit ses jours en 1803, incarcéré en isolement au fort de Joux, dans le rude climat du Doubs, sans avoir pu connaître la proclamation d'indépendance d'Haïti le 1er janvier 1804 par son ancien lieutenant Jean-Jacques Dessalines.
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François-Dominique Toussaint was a Haitian general and the most prominent leader of the Haitian Revolution. During his life, Louverture first fought against the French, then for them, and then finally against France again for the cause of Haitian independence. As a revolutionary leader, Louverture's military and political acumen helped transform the fledgling slave rebellion into a revolutionary movement. Louverture is now known as the "Father of Haiti".
Louverture was born a slave on the French colony of Saint-Domingue, now known as Haiti. He became a free man and a Jacobin, and began his military career as a leader of the 1791 slave rebellion in Saint-Domingue. Initially allied with the Spaniards of neighboring Santo Domingo, Louverture switched his allegiance to the French when the new Republican government abolished slavery. Louverture gradually established control over the whole island and used his political and military influence to gain dominance over his rivals.
Throughout his years in power, he worked to improve the economy and security of Saint-Domingue. Worried about the economy, which had stalled, he restored the plantation system using paid labour; negotiated trade agreements with the United Kingdom and the United States; and maintained a large and well-trained army.[6] Although Louverture did not sever ties with France in 1800 after defeating leaders among the Haitian mulatto population, he promulgated an autonomous constitution for the colony in 1801, which named him as Governor-General for Life, even against Napoleon Bonaparte's wishes.[7]
In 1802, he was invited to a parley by French Divisional General Jean-Baptiste Brunet, but was arrested upon his arrival. He was deported to France and jailed at the Fort de Joux. Deprived of food and water, he died in 1803. Although Louverture died before the final and most violent stage of the Haitian Revolution, his achievements set the grounds for the Haitian army's final victory. Suffering massive losses in multiple historic battles at the hands of the Haitian army and losing thousands of men to yellow fever, the French capitulated and withdrew permanently from Saint-Domingue the very same year. The Haitian Revolution continued under Louverture's lieutenant, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who declared independence on 1 January 1804, thereby establishing the sovereign state of Haiti.
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