... a tour de force: by far the most complete, authoritative and persuasive biography of Toussaint that we are likely to have for a long time. It is not without its own very strong point of view, presenting Toussaint above all as a fierce and effective opponent of slavery. But it is at times an extraordinarily gripping read.

A difficult task indeed — which makes Sudhir Hazareesingh’s Black Spartacus all the more remarkable. The Oxford academic deftly tells the byzantine and fragmented history to paint perhaps the sharpest portrait yet of Louverture.

... expertly crafted.

British-Mauritian writer Sudhir Hazareesingh writes a mesmerizing biography of fellow creole Toussaint Louverture.

Hazareesingh’s engrossing new life tells the story of how the enigmatic, deeply religious boy from Bréda came to be one of the most celebrated, feared and consequential political leaders of his generation.

Hazareesingh has managed to write an outstanding biography that breaks fresh ground and scrapes the crust of folklore, and cliché, from the Toussaint story.

... superb.

Hazareesingh is a fervent admirer and there is more than a touch of hagiography in this eminently scholarly biography. His fairly consistent assumption throughout is that his hero had always been the admirable model of revolutionary rectitude that the more solid documentary evidence of his later activities gives us. Toussaint was certainly a man of presence and organisational ability, but the available sources suggest that he only emerged clearly as a leader in 1793, when what had formerly been the richest colony in the world had already experienced several years of increasing chaos..

The narrative takes wing in these climactic sections. Elsewhere, for all the detailed analysis, you do find yourself longing for some of the declamatory, dramatic prose of CLR James. There is timeless poetry in Louverture’s rise and fall..

Lustrous pearls scattered throughout Black Spartacus, turn this detailed, blow-by-blow account of Toussaint’s military exploits into a dazzling, complicated narrative. They add romance and family intrigue to a plot that is also dotted with Toussaint’s own writing, which will be appreciated by those who have never heard his worldly, arrogant and eloquent voice.

Black Spartacus is the story of Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian Revolution, and a meditation on how the struggle against white supremacy and racism is one of the oldest of the human race. Slavery has ended, and empires are no more, but racism still endures. And so reading about Louverture is edifying—because when slavery was nally abolished, it was done out of political necessity, not on principle.

... deeply researched, energetic, and comprehensively re-envisioned.

This is a balanced, yet sympathetic, biography which throws light on Toussaint’s personality and acknowledges the importance of his political ideals. It refutes those historians who have sought to place him uniquely in a French Enlightenment and republican tradition, arguing that much of his inspiration came from the Caribbean and from his experience of slavery as a young man. But there were other influences, too.

Tracing the growth of Louverture from revolutionary leader to mythic figure, this engrossing read reveals and recovers the historic place both he and the country of Haiti deserve to occupy in the story of the Atlantic world’s creation and re-creation..

The author losely examines the many contradictory accounts of Toussaint’s dealings before and after this key date, as he served as a mediating force between the slaves and the White masters.