|
�I was born a
slave, but nature gave me a soul of
a free man�.� |
Toussaint
Louverture |
�In overthrowing
me, you have done no more than cut
down the trunk of the tree of the
black liberty in St-Domingue-it will
spring back form the roots, for they
are numerous and deep.� |
Toussaint
Louverture |
�My decision to
destroy the authority of the blacks
in Saint Domingue (Haiti) is not so
much based on considerations of
commerce and money, as on the need
to block for ever the march of the
blacks in the world.� |
Napoleon
Bonaparte |
�Toussaint is a
Negro and in the jargon of war has
been called a brigand. But according
to all accounts he is a Negro born
to vindicate the claims of this
species and to show that the
character of men is independent of
color� |
London Gazette
December 12, 1798 |
�Whatever
defamation of character my enemies
are spreading about me, I do not
feel the need to justify myself
toward them. While discretion
obliges me to remain silent, my duty
compels me to prevent them from
doing any more harm.� |
Toussaint
Louverture
|
�But the
prejudice of race alone blinded the
American people for the debt they
owed to the desperate courage of
500,000 Haitian Negroes who would
not be enslaved.�
|
Henry Adams
America�s foremost Historian of the
18th and 19th centuries |
�One of the most
remarkable men in an age rich with
remarkable men, Toussaint
Louverture�s political performance
was such that, in a wider sphere,
Napoleon appears to have imitated
him.� |
Beauchamp |
�Toussaint was a
giant. He had an array of talents
equaled by few men. He had
intelligence intuition and vision.� |
�Toussaint had a
driving vision to create a society
in which people of all races would
be equal before the law and could
rise according to their abilities.� |
�Toussaint�s
vision for Haiti projected a society
embracing equal opportunity for all
with social leveling through
education and hard work.� |
|