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The always entertaining Michael Harriot's tweet thread about the Santo Domingo Revolution:
https://politicaleducation.org/wp-co...k_Jacobins.pdfIn August 1791, after two years of the French Revolution and its repercussions in San Domingo, the slaves revolted. The struggle lasted for 12 years. The slaves defeated in turn the local whites and the soldiers of the French monarchy, a Spanish invasion, a British expedition of some 60,000 men, and a French expedition of similar size under Bonaparte's brother-in-law. The defeat of Bonaparte's expedition in 1803 resulted in the establishment ofthe Negro state of Haiti which has lasted to this day. The revolt is the only successful slave revolt in history, and the odds it had to overcome is evidence of the magnitude of the interests that were involved. The transformation of slaves, trembling in hundreds before a single white man, into a people able to organise themselves and defeat the most powerful European nations of their day, is one of the great epics of revolutionary struggle and achievement. Why and how this happened is the theme of this book.
By a phenomenon often observed, the individual leadership responsible for this unique achievement was almost entirely the work of a single man-Toussaint L'Ouverture. Beauchamp in the Biographie Universelle calls PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION Toussaint L'Ouverture one of the most remarkable men ofa period rich in remarkable men. He dominated from hisentry until cir stances removed him from the scene. The history of the San Domingo revolution will largely be a record of his achievements and his political personality. The writer believes, and is confident the narrative will prove, that between 1789 and 1815. with the single exception of Bonaparte himself, no single figure appeared on the historical stage more greatly gifted than this Negro. a slave till he was 45. Yet Toussaint did not make the revolution. It was the revolution that made Toussaint. And even that is not the whole truth.
The always entertaining Michael Harriot's tweet thread about the Santo Domingo Revolution:
Happy New Year.
I would love to see a film on Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian revolution
Me too. He's one of the greats, right up there with George Washington and Napoleon Bonaparte in his own time.
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