Capture and Death of Louverture, and His Final Letter.
Betrayed into surrendering under a promised flag of truce in Haiti on August 25, 1802, this amazing, partially printed manuscript document was penned and boldly signed by Toussaint Louverture on official French letterhead during his nine-day journey to the French Alps where he spent his last days as a prisoner of Napoleon.
Despite his leadership in the long and bloody revolt, Toussaint considered Haitians to have answered France’s call for “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity,” and thus for Haiti to remain existentially a part of France.
Here, in French, he addresses the commanding general of Rennes, France, Comte Henri-Francois Delaborde, objecting to the coarseness and lack of respect shown by his guard and requests he be replaced. This is the last known correspondence of Louverture, who died of exposure in his frigid prison cell on April 7, 1803.