Toussaint Louverture The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History

A STIRRING GRAPHIC NOVEL OF THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION

The end of slavery started in what was then San Domingo. In 1791, the enslaved people of themost prized French sugar plantation colony revolted against their masters. For over twelveyears, against a backdrop of the French Revolution, they fought an epic black liberation strugglefor control of the island. Theirs was the first and only successful slave revolution. It was thecreation of Haiti as a nation, the first independent black republic outside of Africa, and aninternational inspiration to the persecuted and enslaved. This is the impassioned andbeautifully drawn story of the Haitian Revolution and its incredible leader: ToussaintLouverture.

The text of this graphic novel is a play by C. L. R. James that opened in London in 1936 with PaulRobeson in the title role. For the first time, black actors appeared on the British stage in a workby a black playwright. The script had been lost for almost seventy years when a draft copy wasdiscovered among James’s archives. Now this extraordinary drama has been reimagined byartists Nic Watts and Sakina Karimjee.

C.L.R. James was a Trinidadian historian, novelist, activist, and cultural and political critic. He wrote many books, including Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution.

Nic Watts and Sakina Karimjee are artists based in London. This is their first book.