Wordsworth: A Look into "Toussaint Louverture";

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After reading through a few of William Wordsworth's poems, I realized that I really liked most of them, but the one I like the most was one titled, "To Toussaint L'Ouverture." This one interested me because I had remembered Toussaint L'Ouverture from a history class I had taken a few semesters ago. In the poem, William Wordsworth speaks very highly of Toussaint L'Ouverture. This is kind of surprising because Toussaint L'Ouverture was a black man, and black men weren't held in that great of standards during Wordsworth's times. Through strong words, and classic analogies, Wordsworth makes Toussaint L'Ouverture seem super human and helps readers understand how great of a guy he really was.

François-Dominique Toussaint Fred L'Ouverture was born in Africa and was taken to Saint-Domingue, a French colony that is now present-day Haiti. In Saint-Domingue he was bought by the count de Breda. His owner was really nice to him, and helped encourage him to learn how to read and write. L'Ouverture eventually worked his way up to become De Breda's coachman, where he learned to become a very good horseman. At age 33 L'Ouverture was freed and he leased some land to grow coffee and other crops. When the French revolution came along L'Ouverture played a big part in the war. When British troops tried to occupy Haiti, L'Ouverture led a brigade of black, white, and Mullato to take it back. He defeated both the Spanish and the British on separate occasions and helped the French reach a trade agreement with the Americans. Late in his career he worked to try to separate Haiti from the French for good, and help Haiti become the great plantation nation it once was, but by that time Napoleon was in power and wouldn't let that happen. L'Ouverture was imprisoned in 1802 and died a year later of pneumonia.

In the poem by Wordsworth, he describes Toussaint as, "The most unhappy man of Men!" by saying this, Wordsworth is trying to show L'Ouverture's ambition. He was never happy with the way himself of his country was being treated, and fought for all sides to help people. Wordsworth goes on to say L'Ouverture's head is "Pillowed in some deep dungeon's earless den;" By this, he is saying that L'Ouverture's mind, and ambition is silenced by the prison that he was in at the time.

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