Black Spartacus

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.