French President Emmanuel Macron marked the 175th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in France on Thursday with a tribute to ex-slave Toussaint Louverture, father of Haiti's independence and a "tireless fighter" for freedom, the Elysée presidential palace announced.
Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to General Toussaint Louverture (1743-1803) at the Château de Joux, where the Franco-Haitian general was imprisoned until his death, laying a wreath in front of a bust of Louverture before giving a speech.
“Toussaint Louverture strove to give life to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen,” Macron said in a speech delivered on the 175th anniversary of France’s abolition of slavery.
“That which offered freedom, equality, fraternity to all” he added. Louverture inspired millions to seek freedom after he and other Black leaders from the French-held territory of Saint-Domingue in present-day Haiti successfully defeated their colonial oppressors.
It was the first time a French leader paid an official tribute to Louverture at the prison where he died, a powerful gesture from a president determined to reconcile the France of today with the shadows of its past.