Toussaint Louverture summed up the inhumanity of slavery in its systematic tendency ‘to tear away the son from his mother, the brother from his sister, the father from his son’.

In this first episode, Sudhir Hazareesingh looks at what little is known of Toussaint's early life, his progress to coachman and his education by the Jesuits.

As an intelligent man who could read, it is likely he was key in shaping the strategy of the slave uprising in 1791, but he was also a man of mystery and there is very little documented material of his life. He spread misinformation about himself and had a complex extended family with possibly 16 children.

Toussaint was a tactical leader and, after the uprising, he took time to consolidate his military position and as a rebel leader declared, ‘I was the first to favour a cause that I have always upheld ...what we have begun, I will finish’.

Author: Sudhir Hazareesingh
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Reader: Adrian Lester
Producer: Celia de Wolff

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4 Show less