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Description and Holding Information
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Wordsworth, To Toussaint Louverture, 1802
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To Toussaint Louverture: by William Wordsworth (1770-1850), 1page, memorial sonnet in the Italian style, 1802. (Wordsworth’s tribute to Toussaint was
penned soon after the latter’s death resulting from the harsh conditions of his imprisonment in Fort de Joux near the Swiss border in the Jura
Mountains of France. The conflict between the leader of the Slave Revolution in Saint-Domingue and the First Consul of France was at its core a struggle
over the latter’s intent to reintroduce slavery in the colony. In his view the freedoms enjoyed by the blacks in the colony were but an act of grace, the
duration of which rested on the sufferance of the French Government. Toussaint saw where Napoleon was heading and advised his people: “It is not a
circumstantial freedom conceded to ourselves alone that we want. It is the absolute adoption of the principle that any man born red, black or white
cannot be the property of his like. We are free today because we are the stronger party. {Since} the Consul maintains slavery in Martinique and Bourbon;
we will thus be slaves {again} when he will be the stronger.” Through treachery Napoleon managed to seize and destroy Toussaint personally. But, as
Wordsworth predicted, Nature itself was aligned against the dictator. In the form of tropical fevers it hastened the destruction of the army of fifty
thousand of his best troops that he sent to re-subjugate the colony. On 1 January 1804, less than two years after Toussaint’s death and Wordsworth’s
tribute, Haiti became a free republic. Wordsworth’s poem later became as anthem for the British Abolitionist Movement. However, at the time of its
writing, that movement’s emergence was several years further down history’s path. Since the British themselves still clung to The Institution in their own
prosperous colonies, liberal opinion on the legitimacy of slavery was still evolving. In this instance Wordsworth, who experienced the French Revolution
first hand saw it descend into the chaos of the Reign of Terror, was not too far ahead of liberal public opinion. His sorrow and that of his peers at
Toussaint’s death was more closely tied to their disappointment at the betrayal of the French Revolution’s original promise of universal human
emancipation from all forms of tyranny. The poem, therefore, is not so much a cry against slavery, as it is a plea for freedom in all corners of life’s
experience.)
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Title:
To Toussaint Louverture / by William Wordsworth.
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OCLC Number:
872592451
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Available Volumes
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| Name | Fiche Count | Online | Paper Backup |
| Volume 1 | | Yes | No |
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