Louverture’s literacy gap forced him into meticulous secretarial mediation of his ideas

Evidence

Louverture’s extensive correspondence allows us to explore his actions and ideals. These letters were not written by his hand. Indeed, Lacroix recalled that he “spoke French poorly” and often turned to creole in communicating his ideas. “Nevertheless a divine instinct enlightened him about the value of words” in French. He kept his secretaries working constantly, with several of them writing different versions of a letter until they had found “the turn of phrase that was the appropriate expression of his thought.” He never stopped thinking: “Journeying across the colony on horseback at lightning speed, seeing everything for himself, he prepared his actions. He meditated as he galloped; he meditated as well when he pretended piously to pray.” He had much to think about, for the challenge he faced was enormous: channeling the only successful slave revolt in history, overseeing the first great transition from slavery to freedom in the Americas, and redefining the political terms of empire. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 595

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels other leaders who governed through dictated correspondence despite limited literacy — e.g. slaveholders who hired scribes — and is a vivid counterpoint to Enlightenment ideals of the literate statesman.
• SEED: An essay angle: how the Haitian Revolution’s great documents were produced through dictation, challenging the equation of political authorship with handwriting.