Biography

Philippe Girard is Professor of History at McNeese State University. A native of Guadeloupe, he specializes in the history of the Caribbean and particularly Haiti. He is the author of five books: Clinton in Haiti: The 1994 US Invasion of Haiti; Haiti: The Tumultuous History; The Slaves Who Defeated Napoléon; and The Memoir of General Toussaint Louverture. His latest book Toussaint Louverture: A Revolutionary Life is a biography of the celebrated Haitian revolutionary leader.

Schedule

3:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.
State Capitol, Senate Committee Room A
Book Talk
Toussaint Louverture

4:15 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Barnes & Noble Bookselling Tent
Book Signing

Toussaint Louverture: A Revolutionary Life

Toussaint Louverture’s life was one of hardship, triumph, and contradiction. He was born a slave on Saint-Domingue yet earned his freedom and established himself as a small-scale planter. He even purchased slaves of his own.

Philippe Girard shows how Louverture transformed himself from lowly freedman into revolutionary hero as the mastermind of the bloody slave revolt of 1791. By 1801, Louverture was governor of the colony where he had once been a slave. But his lifelong quest to be accepted as a member of the colonial elite ended in despair: he spent the last year of his life in a French prison cell. His example nevertheless inspired anticolonial and black nationalist movements well into the twentieth century.

Based on voluminous primary-source research, conducted in archives across the world and in multiple languages, Toussaint Louverture is the definitive biography of one of the most influential men in history.