Black Spartacus

bySudhir Hazareesingh

The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture

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The Haitian Revolution began in the French Caribbean colony of Saint-Domingue with a slave revolt in August 1791, and culminated a dozen years later in the proclamation of the world's first independent black state. After the abolition of slavery in 1793, Toussaint Louverture, himself a former slave, became the leader of the colony's black population, the commander of its republican army and eventually its governor. During the course of his extraordinary life he confronted some of the dominant forces of his age - slavery, settler colonialism, imperialism and racial hierarchy.

Black Spartacus draws on a wealth of archival material, much of it overlooked by previous biographers, to follow every step of Louverture's singular journey. Sudhir Hazareesingh shows that Louverture developed his unique vision and leadership not solely in response to imported Enlightenment ideals and revolutionary events in Europe and the Americas, but through a hybrid heritage of fraternal slave organisations, Caribbean mysticism and African political traditions. Above all, Hazareesingh retrieves Louverture's rousing voice and force of personality, making this the most engaging, as well as the most complete, biography to date.

The art of biography lies in using a life story to bring a historical moment, as well as the society and culture that shaped it, alive and to make it legible. And in this, Hazareesingh succeeds admirably ... beautifully written and deeply engag­ing, connecting the many remarkable writings by and about Louverture in a symphonic narrative

Laurent Dubois, American Historical Review

About Sudhir Hazareesingh

Sudhir Hazareesingh was born in Mauritius. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and a Fellow and Tutor in Politics at Balliol College, Oxford. His books include The Legend of Napoleon (winner of the Prix du Mémorial d'Ajaccio and the Prix de la Fondation Napoléon), In the Shadow of the General (winner of the Prix d'Histoire du Sénat), How the French Think (winner of the Grand Prix du Livre d'Idées), and Black Spartacus (winner of the Wolfson History Prize and the American Library in Paris Award). In 2020, he became a Grand Commander of the Order of the Star and Key of the Indian Ocean (G.C.S.K.), the highest honour of the Republic of Mauritius.
Details
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • ISBN: 9780241293829
  • Length: 464 pages
  • Price: £5.99
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