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.

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.