The Black Jacobins

This book takes readers places they have never been before—a world where people from the African diaspora fought to free themselves from the bonds of slavery. It is the story — in all its complexity and ambiguity — of one of the great revolutions in modern history, when blacks rose up against their masters and forged a new society in their own image. It tells how Toussaint L’Ouverture, an illiterate ex-slave on a plantation in San Domingue (now Haiti), led an army of African Americans and Indians against French colonial forces that sought to reestablish slavery on their colony. In this epic struggle for liberation and self-determination, slave armies fought pitched battles with British troops as well as French forces from neighboring islands, who sought to invade San Domingo and restore slavery there. Ultimately, it was Napoleon himself who finally brought about Haiti’s independence. For years afterward, many Haitians looked back at this revolution as a time when black people were free; today, the memory of what happened during those years continue to serve as a reminder for peoples everywhere who seek liberation from oppression.