Toussaint L'ouverture

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Excerpt from Toussaint L'ouverture: A Dramatic HistoryIt is important that the readers of this story should under stand at the outset that this is not a drama intended for the modern stage. I have had in mind rather the production of a work that might set forth dramatically something more than a decade of Negro achievement under the leadership of Negro genius. I have deliberately chosen to tell the story amply for those who care to preserve a precious record rather than to follow the limitations and prohibitions of a present-day cinema audience. I have also, in full view of all the risks, deliberately chosen blank verse as the only vehicle worthy of the dignity and elevation of my theme. We seem, as Mr. Trevelyan says, to have lost both the taste and tradition for this high medium. Serious and sensitive writers must undertake to restore both. I can only hope that patient hospitality may be accorded to that measure and rhythm most expressive of the power and cadence of our tongue.Hayti has come to be a sort of challenge to the democratic sentiments and pretentions of our time. The little island sug gests to the average American certain vexations which it pre sented to our marines during the period of our late paternal investment. Nevertheless, it was in Hayti that the greatest of Negroes rose up to strike the shackles of slavery from the limbs and minds of his race forever, and thus to serve mightily the'cause of American independence. The con¿ict between Toussaint and Napoleon not only hastened the destruction of the emperor, it was a determining factor in making possible for Thomas Jefferson and Robert Livingstone the Louisiana Purchase. America therefore owes to this black Chieftain the ending of all Napoleon's dreams of empire in the western hemisphere. But for him we might now be reading a very different American history, and the problems left unsolved by him still amaze and blight the world.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.