Words matter. These are the best Toussaint Louverture Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
This gun is liberty; hold for certain that the day when you no more have it, you will be returned to slavery.
I am faithfully devoted to the Republic but will not serve it at the expense of my conscience and my honor.
They have in me struck down but the trunk of the tree; the roots are many and deep – they will shoot up again!
I have undertaken vengeance. I want Liberty and Equality to reign in Saint-Domingue. I work to bring them into existence. Unite yourselves to us, brothers, and fight with us for the same cause.
The heads of regiments are required to see that the troops join in prayer morning and evening as far as the service will permit.
We are free today because we are the stronger; we will be slaves again when the government becomes the stronger.
We went to labor in the fields, my wife and I, hand in hand. Scarcely were we conscious of the fatigues of the day. Heaven always blessed our toil.
Citizens, not less generous than myself, let your most precious moments be employed in causing the past to be forgotten; let all my fellow-citizens swear never to recall the past; let them receive their misled brethren with open arms, and let them, in future, be on their guard against the traps of bad men.
I know how to move the people, but I know also where to stop in my own actions so that, when I strike, I shall be felt and not seen.
I accept everything which is favorable for the people and the army; for myself, I wish to live in retirement.
I have need of Rigaud. He is violent. I want him for carrying on war; and that war is necessary to me.
It is not a liberty of circumstance, conceded to us alone, that we wish; it is the adoption absolute of the principle that no man, born red, black or white, can be the property of his fellow man.
I invite you, citizens, to open your eyes and to give serious attention to the future. Reflect on the disasters which may ensue from longer obstinacy. Submit to lawful authority, if you wish to preserve the South untouched. Save your families and your property.
At the beginning of the troubles of Saint Domingo, I felt that I was destined to great things. When I received this divine intimation, I was four and fifty years of age; I could neither read nor write.
God, who knows our most secret thoughts and who sees all, is witness to the purity of my principles. They are not founded on this barbarous ferocity that takes pleasure in shedding human blood.
General Biassou is a simple, vulnerable man without much knowledge, and he is easily led astray by the scoundrels surrounding him. He has sworn eternal hatred for me, and for some time now, he has been trying to destroy me using whatever means he can.
I have taken my flight in the region of eagles; when I alight, it must be on a rock, and that rock must be a constitutional government, of which I shall be the head so long as I shall be among men.
I took up arms for the freedom of my color. It is our own – we will defend it or perish.
