On this day in 1802: Toussaint Louverture, the Haitian slave who led a rebellion against France and other European nations in 1797, winning the colony its independence, was thrown into a French jail.
By 1801, Louverture had united the various slave forces and forced France, England and Spain to pull out of the Caribbean colony. He named himself governor for life and began work to build trade agreements with the island’s former rulers.
His rule didn’t last long. In January 1802, Napoleon sent his brother-in-law Gen. Charles Leclerc to retake the island. By May, Louverture’s forces were defeated, and he was on his way to the French mainland jail, Fort-de-Joux
