About
Who we are?
Who is Suzanne Simon Baptiste Louverture?
Suzanne Simon Baptiste was born in slavery on the Bréda plantation at Haut-du-Cap, near Cap-Français, around 1752. She was a négritte, négrette or négresse as they were called at the time.
She married Toussaint de Bréda, who later became Louverture, in 1781. She already had one child, Placide, and had two children with Toussaint, Isaac and Saint-Jean.
She was deported to France with her husband and children in 1802. Exiled first to Bayonne, then to Agen, where she arrived in 1803, she remained there until her death in 1816.
The founders
Dave Champagne
Robin Mitchell is an award-winning associate professor in the Department of History at the University at Buffalo. She is a historian of 19th-century French history, specializing in discourses on race, gender and sexuality. She received her master's degree in modern European history from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and her doctorate in modern European history from the University of California, Berkeley, with a specialization in women, gender, and sexuality. Mitchell has published numerous journal articles and her first book,Vénus Noire: Black Women and Colonial Fantasies in Nineteenth-Century France (University of Georgia Press, 2020), was nominated by the African American Intellectual History Society in its category “The best black history book for 2020”, and byThe Guardian as one of the “Best Books About Sex” in 2021. Her next book will be the first biography of Suzanne Simon Baptiste, also known as Madame Toussaint Louverture, a previously neglected but influential figure in the history of blacks in France. She is currently under contract with Princeton University Press.
Visit her website HERE
Robin Mitchell
Robin Mitchell is an award-winning associate professor in the Department of History at the University at Buffalo. She is a historian of 19th-century French history, specializing in discourses on race, gender and sexuality. She received her master's degree in modern European history from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and her doctorate in modern European history from the University of California, Berkeley, with a specialization in women, gender, and sexuality. Mitchell has published numerous journal articles and her first book,Vénus Noire: Black Women and Colonial Fantasies in Nineteenth-Century France (University of Georgia Press, 2020), was nominated by the African American Intellectual History Society in its category “The best black history book for 2020”, and byThe Guardian as one of the “Best Books About Sex” in 2021. Her next book will be the first biography of Suzanne Simon Baptiste, also known as Madame Toussaint Louverture, a previously neglected but influential figure in the history of blacks in France. She is currently under contract with Princeton University Press.
Visit her website HERE
Gabriel Osson
Robin Mitchell is an award-winning associate professor in the Department of History at the University at Buffalo. She is a historian of 19th-century French history, specializing in discourses on race, gender and sexuality. She received her master's degree in modern European history from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and her doctorate in modern European history from the University of California, Berkeley, with a specialization in women, gender, and sexuality. Mitchell has published numerous journal articles and her first book,Vénus Noire: Black Women and Colonial Fantasies in Nineteenth-Century France (University of Georgia Press, 2020), was nominated by the African American Intellectual History Society in its category “The best black history book for 2020”, and byThe Guardian as one of the “Best Books About Sex” in 2021. Her next book will be the first biography of Suzanne Simon Baptiste, also known as Madame Toussaint Louverture, a previously neglected but influential figure in the history of blacks in France. She is currently under contract with Princeton University Press.
Visit her website HERE
Sylvie Pourcel
Robin Mitchell is an award-winning associate professor in the Department of History at the University at Buffalo. She is a historian of 19th-century French history, specializing in discourses on race, gender and sexuality. She received her master's degree in modern European history from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and her doctorate in modern European history from the University of California, Berkeley, with a specialization in women, gender, and sexuality. Mitchell has published numerous journal articles and her first book,Vénus Noire: Black Women and Colonial Fantasies in Nineteenth-Century France (University of Georgia Press, 2020), was nominated by the African American Intellectual History Society in its category “The best black history book for 2020”, and byThe Guardian as one of the “Best Books About Sex” in 2021. Her next book will be the first biography of Suzanne Simon Baptiste, also known as Madame Toussaint Louverture, a previously neglected but influential figure in the history of blacks in France. She is currently under contract with Princeton University Press.
Visit her website HERE