The Slave Who Freed Haiti: The Story of Toussaint Louverture by Katharine Scherman.

There’s always a danger in writing nonfiction: new events and information may prove you wrong at some time in the future. In The Slave Who Freed Haiti, author Katharine Scherman calls Haiti “a beautiful and fertile land,” spoiled only by the “lazy and shiftless” Spaniards and the “brutal, indolent, lawless, and cruel” French slavemasters and their Creole assistants. Toussaint Louverture, a black enslaved man, born into slavery, like Mary Poppins is practically perfect in every way, in Ms. Scherman’s portrait of his life. She calls him a good man, a moral example, and a devout Christian. All of those assessments may very well be true, and indeed in reading the book and an article on Wikipedia, I could find very little fault in the man or the country.

However, Ms. Scherman ends her books with these words:

“To this day the little country stands as a monument to great-hearted Toussaint. There, in one of the few free black republics in the world, Negroes can walk with their heads high, without fear or shame, and the are the equals of anyone on earth.”

Another true statement, as far as it goes. But I think Toussaint Louverture, that good man, would weep to see the state of his free republic in 2023, and even in 1957, just three years after The Slave Who Freed Haiti was published, “Papa Doc” Duvalier took over the Haitian republic and made it into a “reign of terror” state.

Still The Slave Who Freed Haiti was a good introduction to the life and work of Toussaint Louverture and to the history of the nation of Haiti. I would like to share this book with the Haitian family who are members of my library and see what they think about it. Yes, it’s somewhat dated and maybe a bit hagiographic, but it has its place in the multitude of opinions about and portrayals of the Haitian revolution. And I am content to have it in my library as an introduction to Haiti and its history.

Content considerations: Slavery was cruel and evil everywhere it was practiced, but slavery in the Caribbean in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries rose to a level of brutality and torture that was unequalled, perhaps, in the history of slavery. Ms. Scherman describes the cruelty of the slave ships and the sugar plantations on the island of Haiti in plain language. One example:

“For the smallest offenses slaves were flogged to death with heavy whips made of plaited cowhide. Clever and hideous tortures were devised to kill rebellious slaves painfully. They were burned to death, blown up with gunpowder, partly buried in the ground with their bodies covered with molasses to attract ants, maimed by having an ear or even a hand cut off.”

Also the war for independence and freedom from slavery was violent and full of atrocities on both sides. So there’s a lot of very ugly content in this story. Do not read or assign this book to sensitive readers.

I knew very little about Toussaint Louverture before I read this book, and now I know more and more about Haiti and more about man’s cruelty to man and more about the courage and resilience of the Haitian people. And that makes the book a worthwhile read.

Read more about Haiti:

Picture Books:

• Selavi, That Is Life: A Haitian Story of Hope by Youme Landowne.
• Tap-Tap by Karen Lynn Williams
• Painted Dreams by Karen Lynn Williams
• Monsieur Jolicoeur’s Umbrella by Anico Surany.
• Circles of Hope by Karen Lynn Williams.
• Please Malese! A Trickster Tale from Haiti by Amy MacDonald.
• The Happy Sound by Ruth Morris Graham.
• Aunt Luce’s Talking Paintings by Francie Latour

Black Patriot and Martyr, Toussaint Louverture by Ann Griffiths is a Messner biography written for an older audience (middle school and high school).

Haiti’s Untold History of Missions by Andy Olson in Christianity Today, February 28, 2023.