Today in Black History: Toussaint L’Ouverture was born May 20th, 1743.

François-Dominique Toussaint L'Ouverture, also known as Toussaint L'Ouverture or Toussaint Bréda, was the best-known leader of the Haitian Revolution.He was a leader of the growing resistance. His military and political acumen saved the gains of the first black insurrection in November 1791. He first fought for the Spanish against the French; then for France against Spain and Great Britain; and finally, he fought in behalf of Saint-Domingue in the era of Napoleonic France. He helped transform the slave insurgency into a revolutionary movement. By 1800 Saint-Domingue, the most prosperous French slave colony of the time, had become the first free colonial society to have explicitly rejected race as the basis of social ranking.

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The Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) was a slave revolt in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, which culminated in the elimination of slavery there and established the Republic of Haiti. It was the only slave revolt in the modern era that led to the founding of a state. It is generally considered the most successful slave rebellion ever to have occurred in the Americas.