Black Spartacus - bookrastinating.com

464 pages

English language

Published Aug. 8, 2020 by Penguin Books, Limited.

ISBN:: 978-0-241-29381-2

(1 review)

The Haitian revolution began in the French colony of Saint-Domingue with a slave revolt in November 1791, and culminated a dozen years later in the proclamation of the world's first independent black republic. After the abolition of slavery in 1793, Toussaint Louverture became the leader of the colony's black population, commander of its republican army and eventually its governor. Treacherously captured by Napoleon's invading army a year later and imprisoned, he ended his days as the revolution's most eminent martyr. Louverture confronted the mighty forces of his age - slavery, settler colonialism, imperial domination, racial hierarchy and European cultural supremacy - and bent them to his will.

Sudhir Hazareesingh draws on a wealth of archival material, much of it overlooked by previous biographers, to follow every step in Louverture's singular career, to capture his voice and the force of his personality. To a greater extent than any previous biography, Black …

The Haitian revolution began in the French colony of Saint-Domingue with a slave revolt in November 1791, and culminated a dozen years later in the proclamation of the world's first independent black republic. After the abolition of slavery in 1793, Toussaint Louverture became the leader of the colony's black population, commander of its republican army and eventually its governor. Treacherously captured by Napoleon's invading army a year later and imprisoned, he ended his days as the revolution's most eminent martyr. Louverture confronted the mighty forces of his age - slavery, settler colonialism, imperial domination, racial hierarchy and European cultural supremacy - and bent them to his will.

Sudhir Hazareesingh draws on a wealth of archival material, much of it overlooked by previous biographers, to follow every step in Louverture's singular career, to capture his voice and the force of his personality. To a greater extent than any previous biography, Black Spartacus understands Louverture's vision and leadership not solely in the context of events in Europe and imported Enlightenment ideals, but in a world of hybrid slave culture and African and Caribbean influences.

4 editions

Stephanie Jane reviewed Black Spartacus by Sudhir Hazareesingh

A meticulously researched biography

4 stars

I didn't think I'd ever heard the name Toussaint Louverture before picking out this meticulously researched biography by Sudhir Hazareesingh, however my partner recognised it as the title of a Courtney Pine composition which we then listened to. Hazareesingh's final chapter describes instances of how Toussaint's legacy has been reimagined in art, music and literature across the globe so it was great to be able to add one more example to this list. This reinforced even more to me though how limited my knowledge of global history is. The Haitian Revolution, or Saint Domingue as it was in the 1790s, was equally as ground-breaking and, well, revolutionary as the French one, yet 'official' white-centric history has pushed the one into relative obscurity while celebrating the other.

Black Spartacus is an excellently detailed biography of Toussaint in which Hazareesingh draws together information from the man's own surviving writings as well as …

I didn't think I'd ever heard the name Toussaint Louverture before picking out this meticulously researched biography by Sudhir Hazareesingh, however my partner recognised it as the title of a Courtney Pine composition which we then listened to. Hazareesingh's final chapter describes instances of how Toussaint's legacy has been reimagined in art, music and literature across the globe so it was great to be able to add one more example to this list. This reinforced even more to me though how limited my knowledge of global history is. The Haitian Revolution, or Saint Domingue as it was in the 1790s, was equally as ground-breaking and, well, revolutionary as the French one, yet 'official' white-centric history has pushed the one into relative obscurity while celebrating the other.

Black Spartacus is an excellently detailed biography of Toussaint in which Hazareesingh draws together information from the man's own surviving writings as well as many letters and reports about him. He explores not only what Toussaint achieved on Saint Domingue, but how he went about uniting his country into a truly multicultural society, albeit temporarily. Events take place primarily on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola so Black Spartacus followed on nicely from another recent history read, Conquistadores by Fernando Cervantes, in educating me about Caribbean history. I felt I got a much fuller understanding of the protagonists and their motivations from Black Spartacus however. The book is written in a scholarly style, but I didn't notice it ever getting too dry. I would have liked English translations of the several brief French and Kreyol quotes that are included. My French is adequate for literal translations, but especially in the cases where Toussaint was flaunting his verbal dexterity, I know I sometimes missed out on understanding the full references. That aside though, I very much appreciated this opportunity to learn about Toussaint as the accomplished statesman he undoubtedly was, and to see glimpses of the private man behind the legend. Black Spartacus is an intense book to read, but I found it very rewarding.