![]() ![]() ![]() In 1776, Bayon granted TL manumission in very obscure circumstances. It was found sown into the frock TL wore in prison, along with a collection of other notarized papers. ![]() He wrote and rewrote the petition several times, forcefully claiming to be primarily a Frenchman, a Black general of the Republic. During his 1803 imprisonment near the Swiss Alps, TL left a 16,000 word petition to Napoleon in phonetic spelling in his own handwriting. TL was an autodidact who at age 50 began to teach himself reading and writing. De Bréda mutated into “the doorway” by sheer self-will. In the 1790s, as he helped organize the slave armies to destroy plantations around Le Cap, Toussaint understood his role in providential Catholic terms -he had become “a doorway or the opening,” L’ouverture, for slaves to gain both emancipation and French civilization, including literacy and classical learning. Eventually, Toussaint developed a close relationship with Catholic priests and came to reject “African barbarism and superstitions” throughout his life. On Nov 1, 1742, the child was therefore christened “Tous-saint de Breda.” Toussaint grew up among slaves speaking Fon and practicing Vodun. The child was born on the Day of all Saints to an Allada aristocrat named Hippolyte and an Aja woman named Pauliine, both slaves at Haut-du Cap, one of four plantations owned by Pantaleón de Bréda, an absentee owner. ![]()
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