How a Slave Humiliated Napoleon... Twice.

Toussaint Louverture was born a slave. He defeated Napoleon and liberated a nation. This is his story. — Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/spectaclesmedia Check out our sources: https://www.spectacles.news/vid-the-slave-who-defeated-napoleon/ Hang out on our Discord: https://discord.gg/VWcpybH683 — Spectacles is a love letter to democracy, its values, its caretakers, and its ideas. Around the world, individual rights and representative government are facing unprecedented attacks from the forces of reaction and revisionism. But despite liberal democracy’s real shortcomings and today’s all-too-fashionable cynicism, we remain committed to its preservation and improvement. Join us as we explore just what liberal democracy is, how it comes about, and how it can best be maintained in a changing world. — 00:00 Intro 01:07 I — HISPANIOLA 03:00 II — REVOLUTION 04:38 III — VISION 06:57 IV — ABOLITION 09:16 V — NAPOLEON — Footnotes in captions, sources here: [^1]: Jeremy D. Popkin, _A Concise History of the Haitian Revolution_ (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), 11-12. [^2]: Ibid., 2. [^3]: Sudhir Hazareesingh, _Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture_ (Farrar, Strous, and Giroux, 2021). No page number available from .epub format. [^4]: C.L.R. James, _The Black Jacobins_, 2nd ed. (Random House, 1963), 33-44. [^5]: Popkin, 2. [^6]: Ibid., 36-38. [^7]: James, 90; Popkin, 43; Hazareesingh. Toussaint’s entry into the Haitian Revolution is a subject of considerable historical debate. Some go so far as to theorize that he collaborated with white planters to provoke the event. Others suggest that he was present at one of the first gatherings of the slaves who plotted the revolt in the Northern Province. The Trinidadian historian C.L.R. James asserts that Toussaint was in contact with other leaders, but was conservative and cautious enough to wait to join the revolt until it was under way. [^8]: Popkin, 45. [^9]: James, 116-117; Madison Smartt Bell, _Toussaint Louverture: A Biography_ (Vintage, 2008). .epub format, page numbers N A. [^10]: James, 131-132. [^11]: Popkin, 44. [^12]: Ibid., 49. [^13]: Ibid., 44. [^14]: Ibid., 44, 49. [^15]: Ibid., 55. [^16]: Ibid., 59. [^17]: Ibid., 66. [^18]: James, 132, 143-144. [^19]: Popkin, 75. [^20]: Ibid., 76, 78; James, 186-187. [^21]: Popkin, 83-89, 99. [^22]: Popkin, 105. [^23]: Consider Andrew Roberts, _Napoleon: A Life_, (Penguin, 2015). [^24]: Popkin, 90, 96-100, 112; James, 276-277. [^25]: Popkin, 117. [^26]: Ibid., 118. [^27]: Ibid., 118-119. [^28]: Ibid., 121-127. [^29]: Ibid., 130-133. [^30]: Ibid., 137. [^31]: Ibid., 144-145. [^32]: Gaspar Gourgaud, _Sainte-Hélène. Journal inédit de 1815 à 1818_, ed. le Vicomte de Grouchy & Antoine Guillois. Two volumes, Paris: Ernest Flammarion, 1899, 402.