Editing Toussaint Louverture (section)

== Early life ==
===Birth, parentage, and childhood===
Louverture was born into [[Slavery in Haiti|slavery]], the eldest son of Hyppolite, an [[Allada]] slave from the [[Slave Coast of West Africa|slave coast of West Africa]], and his second wife Pauline, a slave from the [[Aja people|Aja]] ethnic group, and given the name Toussaint at birth.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Girard |first=Philippe |title=Toussaint Louverture: A Revolutionary Life |publisher=Basic Books |year=2016 |isbn=978-0465094134 |language=English}}</ref> Louverture's son Issac would later name his great-grandfather, Hyppolite's father, as [[Gaou Guinou]] and a son of the [[Great Ardra|King of Allada]], although there is little extant evidence of this. The name Gaou possibly originated in the title Deguenon, meaning "old man" or "wise man" in the Allada kingdom, making Gaou Guinou and his son Hyppolite members of the bureaucracy or nobility, but not members of the royal family. In Africa, Hyppolite and his first wife, Catherine, were forced into enslavement due to a series of [[Imperialism|imperialist]] wars of expansion by the [[Kingdom of Dahomey]] into the Allada territory. In order to remove their political rivals and obtain [[Triangular trade|European trade goods]], Dahomean slavers separated the couple and sold them to the crew of the French [[slave ship]] ''Hermione'', which then sailed to the [[French West Indies]]. The original names of Toussaint's parents are unknown, since the ''[[Code Noir]]'' mandated that slaves brought to their colonies be made into Catholics, stripped of their African names, and be given more European names in order to assimilate them into the French plantation system. Toussaint's father received the name Hyppolite upon his baptism on [[Saint-Domingue]], as Latin and Greek names were the most fashionable for slaves at this time, followed by French, and [[List of biblical names|Biblical Christian names]].<ref name=":3" />

Louverture is thought to have been born on the [[plantation]] of Bréda at Haut-du-Cap in Saint-Domingue, where his parents were enslaved and where he would spend the majority of his life before the revolution.<ref>[[#Bell|Bell (2008) [2007]]], pp. 59–60, 62.</ref><ref>[[#Forsdick|Forsdick & Høgsbjerg (2017)]], p. 14.</ref> His parents would go on to have several children after him, with five surviving infancy; Marie-Jean, Paul, Pierre, Jean, and Gaou, named for his grandfather. Louverture would grow closest to his younger brother Paul, who along with his other siblings were [[Baptism|baptized]] into the [[Catholic Church]] by the local [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit Order]]. Pierre-Baptiste Simon, a carpenter and gatekeeper on the Bréda plantation, is considered to have been Louverture's [[Godparent|godfather]] and went on to become a parental figure to Louverture's family, along with his foster mother Pelage, after the death of Toussaint's parents.<ref>[[Ralph Korngold|Korngold, Ralph]] [1944], 1979. ''Citizen Toussaint''. [[Greenwood Press]]. {{ISBN|0313207941}}.{{page needed|date=May 2020}}</ref> Growing up, Toussaint first learned to speak the African [[Fon language|Fon]] language of the Allada slaves on the plantation, then the [[Haitian Creole#Saint Dominican Creole French|Creole French]] of the greater colony, and eventually the [[Standard French]] of the elite class (''grands blancs'') during the revolution.

Although he would later become known for his stamina and riding prowess, Louverture earned the nickname ''Fatras-Bâton'' ("sickly stick"), in reference to his small thin stature in his youth.<ref>[[#Bell|Bell (2008) [2007]]], pp. 60, 62.</ref><ref name=":1">[[John Relly Beard|Beard, John Relly]]. [1863] 2001. ''[https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/beard63/beard63.html Toussaint L'Ouverture: A Biography and Autobiography]'' (online ed.). Boston: [[James Redpath]].</ref>{{Rp|26–27}} Toussaint and his siblings were trained to be [[House slave|domestic servants]] with Louverture being trained as an [[Equestrianism|equestrian]] and coachmen after showing a talent for handling the horses and oxen on the plantation. This allowed the siblings to work in the manor house and stables, away from the grueling physical labor and deadly corporal punishment meted out in the sugar-cane fields. In spite of this relative privilege, there is evidence that even in his youth Louverture's pride pushed him to engage in fights with members of the ''[[White Haitians|Petits-blancs]]'' (white commoner) community, who worked on the plantation as hired help. There is a record that Louverture beat a young ''petit blanc'' named Ferere, but was able to escape punishment after being protected by the new plantation overseer, François Antoine Bayon de Libertat. De Libertat had become steward of the Bréda property after it was inherited by Pantaléon de Bréda Jr., a ''grand blanc'' (white nobleman), and managed by Bréda's nephew the Count of Noah.<ref>[[#Bell|Bell (2008) [2007]]], pp. 66, 70, 72.</ref> In spite or perhaps because of this protection, Louverture went on to engage in other fights. On one occasion, he threw the plantation attorney Bergé off a horse belonging to the Bréda plantation, when he attempted to take it outside the bounds of the property without permission.<ref name=":3" />

=== First marriage and manumission ===
Until 1938, historians believed that Louverture had been a slave until the start of the revolution.{{efn|group=note|Up to, for example, [[C. L. R. James]], writing in 1938.}}{{citation needed|date=November 2023}} In the later 20th century, discovery of a personal marriage certificate and baptismal record dated between 1776 and 1777 documented that Louverture was a [[Free person of color|freeman]], meaning that he had been [[manumitted]] sometime between 1772 and 1776, the time de Libertat had become overseer. This finding retrospectively clarified a private letter that Louverture sent to the French government in 1797, in which he mentioned he had been free for more than twenty years.<ref name=":2">de Cauna, Jacques. 2004. ''Toussaint L'Ouverture et l'indépendance d'Haïti: Témoignages pour une commémoration''. Paris: Ed. Karthala.</ref>{{Rp|62}}

Upon being freed, Toussaint took up the name of Toussaint de Bréda (Toussaint of Bréda), or more simply Toussaint Bréda, in reference to the plantation where he grew up. Toussaint went from being a slave of the Bréda plantation to becoming a member of the greater community of ''gens de couleur libres'' ([[free people of color]]). This was a diverse group of ''Affranchis'' (freed slaves), free blacks of full or majority African ancestry, and ''[[Mulatto]]s'' (mixed-race peoples), which included the children of French planters and their African slaves, as well as distinct [[multiracial people|multiracial]] families who had multi-generational mixed ancestries from the varying different populations on the island. The ''gens de couleur libres'' strongly identified with Saint-Domingue, with a popular slogan being that while the French felt at home in France, and the slaves felt at home in Africa, they felt at  home on the island. Now enjoying a greater degree of relative freedom, Louverture dedicated himself to building wealth and gaining further [[social mobility]] through emulating the model of the ''grands blancs'' and rich ''gens de couleur libres'' by becoming a planter. He began by renting a small coffee plantation, along with its 13 slaves, from his future son-in-law.<ref name=":4">Cauna, pp. 63–65.</ref> One of the slaves Louverture owned at this time is believed to have been [[Jean-Jacques Dessalines]], who would go onto become one of Louverture's most loyal lieutenants and a member of his personal guard during the Haitian Revolution.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cauna |first=Jacques de |date=2012 |title=Dessalines esclave de Toussaint ? |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/outre_1631-0438_2012_num_99_374_4936 |journal=Outre-Mers. Revue d'histoire |volume=99 |issue=374 |pages=319–322 |doi=10.3406/outre.2012.4936}}</ref>

Between 1761 and 1777, Louverture met and married his first wife, Cécile, in a [[Marriage in the Catholic Church|Catholic ceremony]]. The couple went on to have two sons, Toussaint Jr. and Gabrielle-Toussaint, and a daughter, Marie-Marthe. During this time, Louverture bought several slaves; although this was a means to grow a greater pool of exploitable labor, this was one of the few legal methods available to free the remaining members of a former slave's extended family and social circle. Louverture eventually bought the freedom of Cécile, their children, his sister Marie-Jean, his wife's siblings, and a slave named Jean-Baptist, freeing him so that he could legally marry. Louverture's own marriage, however, soon became strained and eventually broke down, as his coffee plantation failed to make adequate returns. A few years later, the newly freed Cécile left Louverture for a wealthy [[Creole peoples|''Creole'']] planter, while Louverture had begun a relationship with a woman named Suzanne, who is believed to have gone on to become his second wife. There is little evidence that any formal divorce occurred, as that was illegal at the time. Louverture, in fact, would go on to completely excise his first marriage from his recollections of his pre-revolutionary life, to the extent that, until recent documents uncovered the marriage, few researchers were aware of the existence of Cécile and her children with Louverture.<ref name=":3" />

===Second marriage===
In 1782, Louverture married his second wife, [[Suzanne Simone Baptiste Louverture|Suzanne Simone-Baptiste]], who is thought to have been his cousin or the daughter of his godfather Pierre-Baptiste.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|263}} Toward the end of his life, Louverture told [[Marie-François Auguste de Caffarelli du Falga|General Caffarelli]] that he had fathered at least 16 children, of whom 11 had predeceased him, between his two wives and a series of mistresses.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|264–267}} In 1785, Louverture's eldest child, the 24-year-old Toussaint Jr., died from a fever and the family organized a formal [[Catholic funeral]] for him. This was officiated by a local priest as a favor for the devout Louverture. Gabrielle-Toussaint disappeared from the historical record at this time and is presumed to have also died, possibly from the same illness that took Toussaint Jr.. Not all of Louverture's children can be identified with certainty, but the three children from his first marriage and his three sons from his second marriage are well known. Suzanne's eldest child, Placide, is generally thought to have been fathered by Seraphim Le Clerc, a ''Creole'' planter. In spite of this, Placide was adopted by Louverture and raised as his own. Louverture went on to have at least two sons with Suzanne: Isaac, born in 1784, and Saint-Jean, born in 1791. They would remain enslaved until the start of the revolution, as Louverture spent the 1780s attempting to regain the wealth he had lost with the failure of his coffee plantation in the 1770s.<ref name=":2" />{{Rp|264–267}}

It appears that during this time Louverture returned to play an important role on the Bréda plantation to remain closer to old friends and his family. He remained there until the outbreak of the revolution as a salaried employee and contributed to the daily functions of the plantation.<ref name="Bell, pp.24-25">[[#Bell|Bell (2008) [2007]]], pp. 24–25.</ref> He took up his old responsibilities of looking after the [[livestock]] and care of the horses.<ref>[[#Bell|Bell (2008) [2007]]], p. 62.</ref> By 1789, his responsibilities expanded to include acting as a [[muleteer]], master miller, and possibly a slave-driver, charged with organizing the workforce. During this time the Bréda family attempted to divide the plantation and the slaves on it among a new series of four heirs. In an attempt to protect his foster mother, Pelage, Louverture bought a young 22-year-old female slave and traded her to the Brédas to prevent Pelage from being sold to a new owner. By the start of the revolution, Louverture began to accumulate a moderate fortune and was able to buy a small plot of land adjacent to the Bréda property to build a house for his family. He was nearly 48 years old at this time.<ref name=":4" />[[File:Toussaint L'Ouverture reading the Abbé Raynal's work.jpg|thumb|Apocryphal print of Toussaint reading Abbé Raynal's ''Histoire des deux Indes'' before the revolution (1853)]]

=== Education ===
Louverture gained some education from his godfather Pierre-Baptiste on the Bréda plantation.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lee |first1=Eunice Day |date=November 1951 |title=Toussaint Louverture |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44212502 |journal=Negro History Bulletin |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=40–39 |jstor=44212502}}</ref> His extant letters demonstrate a moderate familiarity with [[Epictetus]], the [[Stoicism|Stoic philosopher]] who had lived as a slave, while his public speeches showed a familiarity with [[Machiavelli]].<ref name="Bell, p.61">[[#Bell|Bell (2008) [2007]]], p. 61.</ref> Some cite [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] thinker [[Abbé Raynal]], a French critic of slavery, and his publication ''[[Histoire des deux Indes]]'' predicting a slave revolt in the West Indies as a possible influence.<ref name="Bell, p.61" /><ref name=":1" />{{Rp|30–36}}{{efn|group=note|The wording of the proclamation issued by then rebel slave leader Louverture in August 1793, which may have been the first time he publicly used the name "Louverture", possibly refer to an [[Abolitionism|anti-slavery]] passage in Abbé Raynal's ''A Philosophical and Political History of the Settlements and Trade of the Europeans in the East and West Indies''.<ref name="Bell 2008 p. 18">[[#Bell|Bell (2008) [2007]]], p. 18.</ref><ref>[[#Blackburn|Blackburn (2011)]], p. 54.</ref>}}

Louverture received a degree of theological education from the Jesuit and Capuchin missionaries through his church attendance and devout Catholicism. His medical knowledge is attributed to a familiarity with the [[Traditional medicine|folk medicine]] of the African plantation slaves and Creole communities, as well as more formal techniques found in the hospitals founded by the Jesuits and the free people of color.<ref>[[Madison Smartt Bell|Bell]], 2007, pp. 64–65.</ref> Legal documents signed on Louverture's behalf between 1778 and 1781 suggest that he could not yet write at that time.<ref>[[#Bell|Bell (2008) [2007]]], pp. 60, 80.</ref><ref name=":2" />{{Rp|61–67}} Throughout his military and political career during the revolution, he was known to have verbally dictated his letters to his secretaries, who prepared most of his correspondences. A few surviving documents from the end of his life in his own hand confirm that he eventually learned to write, although his Standard French spelling was "strictly [[Phonetics|phonetic]]" and closer to the Creole French he spoke for the majority of his life.<ref name="Bell, p.61" /><ref>[[#James|James (1814)]], p. 104.</ref><ref name="richardjcallahan">{{cite book |title=New Territories, New Perspectives: The Religious Impact of the Louisiana Purchase|author=Richard J. Callahan|year=2008|publisher=University of Missouri Press|pages=158}}</ref>