Isaac Louverture: Poet

• In Event: Forgotten Black Artists of the Black Atlantic World during the Age of Revolution

Abstract

Isaac Louverture is a historical actor whose activism in the African Diaspora has been overlooked. Aside from being the son of Toussaint Louverture, Isaac played a significant role in French Abolitionism and was an influential member of Haiti’s international community. Beyond his role in the political realm, Isaac also influenced nineteenth-century Haitian historiography and literature. Scholars have only attributed one poem to Isaac, For a Day of Peace, a verse Isaac wrote as a young student in Paris for the First Counsel, Napoleon Bonaparte, in 1801. Many have suggested that Isaac stopped writing due his traumatic experience in the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804). This was not the case.
In 1820, an epic poem, l’Haïtiade, was passed around the Parisian literary community. While it was extremely popular, the author and publisher were unknown. The prose provided some clues of the poem’s authorship, as it intimately described the events of the Haitian Revolution. As a result, it was believed that it had to be crafted by someone who had that lived experience. This crucial literary artifact of the Haitian Revolution and the mystery attached to it has led many scholars to attempt to figure out its authorship. The majority have tried to connect it to known prominent early poets of the Haitian State, including Juste Chalatte. However, none of the authors suggested had an intimate relationship with the revolution or the means to publish in France in the early 1820s. This paper will bring this mystery to an end by providing indisputable proof that Isaac Louverture is the author of l’Haïtiade, and the examination of evidence will highlight Isaac’s role in Haitian literature and historiography.

Author

• Andrew Maginn, University of the South: Sewanee