Black Spartacus

The art of biography lies in using a life story to bring a historical moment, as well as the society and culture that shaped it, alive and to make it legible. And in this, Hazareesingh succeeds admirably … beautifully written and deeply engag­ing, connecting the many remarkable writings by and about Louverture in a symphonic narrative – Laurent Dubois * American Historical Review *
This is an erudite and elegant biography with a message that resonates strongly in our own time – David Cannadine
remarkable … the sharpest portrait yet of Louverture … Black Spartacus is a triumph. It takes a nearly impossibly complex history and weaves it into a compelling and accurate narrative that reads like fiction. – Ben Horowitz * Financial Times *
Black Spartacus is a tour de force: by far the most complete, authoritative and persuasive biography of Toussaint that we are likely to have for a long time…an extraordinarily gripping read. – David A Bell * Guardian *
There is no better literary contribution to the year of Black Lives Matter than Sudhir Hazareesingh’s Black Spartacus, an authoritative biography of Toussaint Louverture, who led the successful “slave revolt” in Haiti and paved the way for Haitian independence. – Vince Cable * New Statesman Books of the Year *
an outstanding biography that breaks fresh ground and scrapes the crust of folklore, and cliché, from the Toussaint story … scrupulous and absorbing … After the summer of 2020, there could hardly be a more urgent and valuable book. – Boyd Tonkin * Arts Desk *
This thrilling, magisterial, superb biography, full of new material, tells the extraordinary swashbuckling, bloodspattered, inspirational life of Toussaint, brilliant leader of the Haitian slave revolt against France – Simon Sebag Montefiore * Evening Standard *
Lustrous pearls … scattered throughout Black Spartacus, turn this detailed, blow-by-blow account of Toussaint’s military exploits into a dazzling, complicated narrative … a breath-taking picture of the decade of Toussaint’s dream – Amy Wilentz * Spectator *
Sudhir Hazareesingh’s engrossing new life is the story of an island as well as a man … Hazareesingh brings to the task a voracious appetite for original sources and a discerning ear for those that have the ring of truth. He also has a gift for tracing those threads that reveal a previously unrecognised pattern in the fabric of a life. – Nathan Perl-Rosenthal * Wall Street Journal *
With Black Spartacus, Sudhir Hazareesingh has produced the fourth - and best - biography of Toussaint Louverture since the bicentenary of Haitian independence … The book deftly tackles the early stages of the slave uprising and gives one of the most convincing accounts yet of Toussaint’s likely role in its opening moves. – Paul Clammer * History Today *

Sudhir Hazareesingh was born in Mauritius. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and has been a Fellow and Tutor in Politics at Balliol College, Oxford, since 1990. He has written extensively about French intellectual and cultural history; among his books are The Legend of Napoleon, In the Shadow of the General and How the French Think. He won the Prix du Memorial d’Ajaccio and the Prix de la Fondation Napoleon for the first of these, a Prix d’Histoire du Senat for the second, the Grand Prix du Livre d’Idees for the third and the Wolfson History Prize and American Library in Paris Award for the fourth. In 2020, he became a Grand Commander of the Order of the Star and Key of the Indian Ocean (G.C.S.K.), the highest honour of the Republic of Mauritius.

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