On this day in 1743, Pierre-Dominique Toussaint Louverture was born in Saint-Domingue, the French colony that would later become Haiti. Though slave revolts had occurred before across the Americas, none would rival the scale or success of the Great Haitian Revolution.

Beginning in 1791, over 500,000 enslaved Africans on the island rose up in a coordinated revolt, setting plantations ablaze and challenging colonial rule. Louverture, a self-educated former slave, emerged as the revolution’s most brilliant military and political leader. He organized the rebel forces into a disciplined army and outmaneuvered European powers—including France, Spain, and Britain—to lay the foundation for the world’s first Black republic.

Toussaint Louverture’s leadership would not only change the fate of Haiti but also shake the foundations of slavery and colonialism across the globe.