Toussaint L'Ouverture was born into slavery in the Plaine du Nord of what was then Saint-Domingue. He was born on the Bréda plantation of Bayon de Libertat, near Cap Français. Tradition says that his father was an African named Gaou-Guinou and probably a member of the Arada ethnic group. Toussaint Breda was lucky enough to be educated and to be literate. He read widely in French literature of the Enlightenment. He worked as a carriage driver a...