Few figures in world history changed events as dramatically as Toussaint Louverture. Born enslaved in the French colony of Saint Domingue, he rose from bondage to become the most important leader of the Haitian Revolution, the only large scale...
In the late nineteenth century, European powers rushed to take control of African territory in what historians later called the Scramble for Africa. Soldiers and guns would eventually play a major role in that conquest. But before armies arrived,...
Jean-Baptiste de Caradeux de La Caye remains one of the most despised figures in the history of French Saint-Domingue, now Haiti, though today few know his name. Born in Saint-Domingue but educated in France, Caradeux returned to the Caribbean...
The Haitian Revolution was a shockingly brutal conflict. While the Haitian people were prepared to fight to the end for their freedom, the French army was determined to use extreme brutality to put down the slave uprising. One figure...
Ahmadou Bamba, also known to followers as "The Servant of the Messenger" and Serigne Touba or "Sheikh of Touba," was a religious leader in Senegal and the founder of the large Mouride Brotherhood (the Muridiyya) who was exiled by...
