Toussaint Louverture, also known as Toussaint de Bréda, was a Haitian general who played an important role in the Haitian Revolution, the only known slave uprising in history which led to a fully emancipated and independent state.

Louverture was born into slavery on a plantation in Saint-Domingue, and became a free man in his adult life.

From the early 1790s, he was actively involved in strategic leadership of the uprisings against French colonial rule and he was renowned by those around him for being kind and intelligent.