The Black Jacobins

by C L R James

This book is very complex because it does not make the rebellion’s leader, Toussaint L’Ouverture, into a sort of plaster saint. This is a guy who led a revolt against an absolutely brutal, manipulative slave-owning class and in some respects he had to be just as ghastly – indeed some of his lieutenants were even worse. But Toussaint was a natural compromiser and tried again and again to make a deal with the French.