Quote by Toussaint Louverture: “In overthrowing me, you have done no more than cut down the trunk of the tree of black liberty.”

Even in defeat and captivity, Toussaint declared that the freedom movement he led could not be destroyed by removing him personally. Ideas and causes rooted in entire peoples cannot be killed by eliminating their leaders — they will continue to grow.

Toussaint was arrested by Napoleon's forces in 1802, betrayed under a flag of truce, and imprisoned in Fort de Joux in the French Alps, where he died in 1803. He reportedly spoke these words upon his arrest, and Haiti went on to declare independence the following year — proving him right.

Haitian revolutionary leader and the most prominent figure of the Haitian Revolution, the only successful slave revolt in history. Born into slavery, he rose to lead the liberation of Saint-Domingue, which became the Republic of Haiti in 1804.