Toussaint: the Black Napoleon

Toussaint Louverture was the revolution's most brilliant leader. Born into slavery, self-educated, and strategically gifted, he defeated Spanish, British, and French armies through guerrilla tactics and conventional warfare, playing European powers against each other with remarkable diplomatic skill.

Napoleon himself acknowledged Toussaint's genius while plotting his downfall. Toussaint was lured to a meeting under false pretenses, arrested, and then shipped to Fort de Joux, a prison high in France's Jura Mountains, where he died in 1803.