Independent Lens
Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock
A look at the life of African American political activist and newspaper publisher Daisy Bates.
Egalité for All: Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian Revolution
The story of history’s only successful slave insurrection and the man who lead it.
- Series
- Global Voices
- Premiere Date
- January 25, 2009
- Length
- 60 minutes
- Funding Initiative
- Open Call
Producer
Patricia Aste
Director
Noland Walker
Noland Walker is a writer and producer of documentary films. He wrote and co-produced Citizen King, a film that aired on American Experience; Jonestown: The Life and Death of the Peoples Temple, which premiered on Frontline; and Égalité for All: Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian Revolution. He produced and directed the second episode of the Peabody… Show more
- Other ITVS Films
- Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock
- Third Ward TX
Producer
Margaret Koval
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Learn more about funding opportunities with ITVS.
The Film
Egalité for All: Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian Revolution tells the story of the only successful slave insurrection in history. It grasped the full meaning of French revolutionary ideas — liberté, eqalité, fraternité — and used them to create the world’s first black republic. It changed the trajectory of colonial economics ... and led to America’s acquisition of the Louisiana territory from France. “It” was the Haitian Revolution, a movement that’s been called the true birth moment of universal human rights. Vaguely remembered today, the Haitian Revolution was a hurricane at the turn of the nineteenth century — traumatizing Southern planters and inspiring slaves and abolitionists, worldwide.
The man at the forefront of Haiti’s epochal uprising was Toussaint Louverture. He was world-known in his day and deserves a place among history’s most celebrated figures today. Born into slavery, Toussaint had been freed by his master before the revolt began. He owned property and was financially secure. He risked it all, however, to join then lead an army of slaves that would fight, in turn, the French, the British, and the Spanish empires for 12 years.
He was often compared to George Washington. But his is military feats alarmed Thomas Jefferson ... and ultimately provoked a full-scale attack from Napoleon Bonaparte. France’s final offensive would cost Toussaint his life. But France lost, nonetheless, and the richest colony in the Americas became an independent black republic.
