Most people in the United States do not know the name Toussaint L’Ouverture, but he is a national hero in his native Haiti. His story is taught to schoolchildren and is as central to that nation’s sense of identity as the American Revolution is to ours. Today, portraits of Toussaint appear all over Haiti, sometimes borrowed from historical representations and sometimes created anew. His image is found on Haitian currency and also adorns the covers of countless books.

Sometimes Toussaint is represented as a fierce soldier, but in the Golden Legacy comic book, published in 1966, he assumes a more diplomatic appearance. He is attired in his military uniform, and his hair, white at the temples to lend him a more fatherly appearance, is tied back with a ribbon in the manner of Thomas Jefferson and other American colonial leaders.

Nicolas Eustache Maurin, Toussaint L'Ouverture, from Iconographie des Contemporains, Paris, 1832
Lithograph
Lent by Print & Picture Collection, Free Library of Philadelphia

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