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Haiti to Harlem: Toussaint L'Ouverture & Jacob Lawrence Main Menu Jacob Lawrence: The Storyteller Paintings to Prints The Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture in Print Contextualizing The Prints Curating the Exhibition Imprints and Impact Highlights the impact of the Jacob Lawrence prints in relation to both Lawrence's life and the history of global POC liberation. About the Curators Meet the Fall 2024 Curatorial Class! Select Bibliography

The Haitian Revolution: the most successful slave uprising in history which led to the formation of the first Black Republic in 1804 poster

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Toussaint L'Ouverture Toussaint L’Ouverture (1743-1803) was a general and leader of the Haitian Revolution. Born as François-Dominique Toussaint on the Breda plantation in Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti), he was enslaved until he was freed at age 33. Before spearheading the revolution against slavery in Saint Domingue, Toussaint himself used enslaved laborers. When the revolution broke out in 1791, he initially allied with Spain against French rule but later switched allegiance to France and brought an end to the revolution once France abolished slavery across its empire by 1794. Between 1792-93, he adopted the surname L’Ouverture, derived from the French word for “the opening.” In 1801, L’Ouverture took over the Spanish part of the island, which had been ceded to France in 1795. His independent rule angered Napoleon Bonaparte, leading to L’Ouverture’s arrest in 1802, his detention, and death in the remote Saint de Joux fortress in France. When Napoleon began re-establishing slavery across the French empire, the Haitian Revolution began anew, ultimately resulting in Haiti’s independence from French colonial rule. While traces of Toussaint L’Ouverture’s handwriting survive, his physical appearance is known only through representations created after the Haitian Revolution, predominantly by French authors and artists. These portrayals often exaggerated his facial features and reduced him to a racial caricature. In contrast, later artists inspired by Jacob Lawrence have increasingly highlighted L’Ouverture as a symbol of strength and individualism, embodying the fight against the dehumanizing forces of exploitation.