ABSTRACT
The Bréda plantations in Saint Domingue’s northern plain are famous in Haitian history because of their connection with the revolutionary leader, Toussaint Louverture. It was on the estate of Haut-du-Cap, just outside of modern Cap Haitien, that Toussaint was born, apparently around 1745. There, as a young man, he supposedly benefitted from the benevolent attention of the manager, Bayon de Libertat, who ran the plantation for the absentee owner and who later became attorney for both Haut-du-Cap and its sister plantation in the adjacent parish of Plaine-du-Nord. 1 Both estates were situated in what would become the heartland of the great slave revolt of 1791 which, according to some, Toussaint secretly organised.
