Toussaint Louverture

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

by C.L.R. James

Illustrated by Sakina Karimjee and Nic Watts

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    272 pages / 10 October 2023 / 9781788737906

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    10 October 2023 / 9781788737920

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PERHAPS THE GREATEST VICTORY OF THE OPPRESSED OVER THEIR OPPRESSORS IN ALL HISTORY

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

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

Reviews

  • The drawings are fantastic and the energy palpable on every page.

    Joe Sacco, journalist and comic book artist, author of Palestine

  • A marvellous adaptation of one of the most important black history and slave history books ever written. C.L.R. James would be delighted.

    Paul Buhle, authorized biographer of C. L. R. James and editor of more than twenty radical history graphic novels

  • An epic work of graphic history – a compelling, dramatic, detailed, delicate, and human rendition of this incredible tale of resistance

    Kate Evans, author of Red Rosa: The Graphic Biography of Rosa Luxemburg