
The Wrongful Death of Toussaint Louverture - Thevet
https://www.historytoday.com/archive/feature/wrongful-death-toussaint-louverture
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danharaj
I'm currently reading The Black Jacobins which is about Toussaint L'Ouverture
and the revolution in Haiti. Even after having read accounts of the brutality
of slavery multiple times before, it always seems to recede into an
abstraction after a long time and the descriptions are as gruesome and
horrifying as they ever were. And this is a book that spares the details,
relatively speaking.

The wealth of the world is covered in blood.

~~~
CryptoPunk
>>The wealth of the world is covered in blood.

Slavery was not very productive. It existed globally from the beginning of
organized human society to the 19th century.

In some regions it persisted into the 20th century, and these were all very
undeveloped.

Productivity rose in accordance with the decline of slavery. The regions that
eradicated slavery first, like Europe, saw the greatest productivity gains.

Labor from paid free individuals and industrialization produced much of wealth
of the world.

~~~
orwin
>> Slavery was not very productive

Once we created mechanical slaves, it was not. But until then, it was.

Slavery was abandoned because productivity rose, not the opposite.
Productivity is tied with energy consumption. That's why we won't ever be able
to limit our greenhouse gaz production.

~~~
CryptoPunk
Europe itself didn't have slavery, and was by global standards, quite
productive before it ever acquired colonies and slaves.

But I agree that it could have been rising productivity that led to the
abolition of slavery, and not the other way around.

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loudmax
The Revolutions Podcast, by Mike Duncan who also did the History of Rome
podcast, did a series on the Haitian revolution. It's excellent! It may be the
only successful slave revolt and a truly fascinating story.

The series ran from 2015/12 through 2016/04\. The podcast archives begin here:
[https://www.revolutionspodcast.com/2015/12/index.html](https://www.revolutionspodcast.com/2015/12/index.html)

~~~
Alenycus
Everything up there is great. I've listen to the history of Rome and the
French revolution multiple times. But I am very concerned about his increasing
radicalization since doing the Haitian revolution. It's lowering the quality
of his work significantly.

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082349872349872
To put some context on "his cell, which was often freezing, was too cold",
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_de_Joux](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_de_Joux)
shows that the fort is on the other side of the border from "the Siberia of
Switzerland", where they say temperatures can descend to -40.

(-40 C or -40 F, it doesn't matter. 233 K)

also occurred in the area: the Bourbaki Army asylum at the end of the Franco-
Prussian war.
[https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/resources/documents/article/othe...](https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/resources/documents/article/other/57jn32.htm)

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saiya-jin
Its interesting that coldest place en Suisse isn't some 4500m peak, but a
valley in relatively low-lying hills far from anything very high.

And you are right, its actually impressive he survived for so long there.

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simonebrunozzi
Famous VC Ben Horowitz writes about Toussaint Louverture often [0], I think
it's generally interesting, although I strongly disagree with his stance that
he "won" against Napoleon in a battle, as he simply won against French troops,
NOT led by Napoleon himself.

[0]: [https://medium.com/@4thlettertech/ben-horowitz-my-
unlikely-h...](https://medium.com/@4thlettertech/ben-horowitz-my-unlikely-
hero-part-2-the-opening-fb0a13f77ae)

~~~
barrenko
"Hard thing about hard things" was a much better book for me. This sequel is
mostly the same as what you get out of the articles for the book promo.

~~~
simonebrunozzi
Ha! I wrote a review of it [0], in case you're curious.

[0]: [http://brunozzi.com/2014/03/20/the-ugly-thing-about-the-
hard...](http://brunozzi.com/2014/03/20/the-ugly-thing-about-the-hard-thing-
about-hard-things/)

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abrowne
I recently read and recommend _A New World Begins: The History of the French
Revolution_ by Jeremy Popkin. It it's focused on this, but talks about it in
the context of the Revolution, which makes all the switching sides make a lot
more sense.

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abrowne
Typo, should read _It_ isn't _focused_.

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mlthoughts2018
The rock band Swans has an amazing song “Bring the Sun / Toussaint
L’Ouverture” partially inspired by these events.

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JlqBcXh231g](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JlqBcXh231g)

~~~
jjdredd
Also Santana had a song named after Toussaint but I don't think lyrics are
describing anything about the actual person.

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ptaipale
To reformulate the proverb attributed to Stalin:

The wrongful treatment of Toussaint Louverture was a tragedy, but the
crippling debt imposed by France on Haiti was just... economic statistics.

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mobilefriendly
The Haitian Revolution ended as a genocide against all whites on the island,
including white abolitionists who were fighting alongside the enslaved.
Several thousand French men, women and children were murdered.

Edit: The massacre happened the year after Louverture died, so that's not
pertinent. I apologize. More details, including the Poles who only survived
the genocide by hiding.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1804_Haiti_massacre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1804_Haiti_massacre)

~~~
genoapol
>Haitian Revolution, which was a genocide against all whites on the island,
including white abolitionists who were fighting alongside the enslaved.

Not correct, the Polish that allied with the enslaved Haitains and fought off
the French were given an honorary black card and Haitian citizenship but were
still very much white.

Poland is also home to one of the oldest Black Madonna paintings which signals
the strong ties between the Virgin Mary/Jesus and Egypt's Isis/Horus.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Haitians](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Haitians)

