Portrait of Toussaint Louverture published by H.D. Symonds. Toussaint Bréda (1743-1803) was born into slavery before being freed at around 30 years of age. He was fluent in the language of his Ewe-Fon father, who may have been the son of a chief in Africa. Toussaint was also a pious Christian. In 1793, he took the name Louverture or ‘the opening’, suggesting a symbolic new beginning. Toussaint succeeded in mobilising an army to take on and defeat French, and later British, military forces in Saint Domingue.