How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Yes, there were slave owners who were relatively kind and gentle—Bayou was one of them—but animals were disposable for good men and bad alike. […] This. This was the truth that Toussaint suddenly saw: that an evil idea makes bad men of everyone who believes in it. (6.96)
You could say Toussaint is lucky that his master was a kind man. Based on some of the other horror stories, Bayou seems like a godsend. But not to Toussaint. He doesn't care who the guy is—if he owns slave, he's not a good man. He tells us that slavery corrupts everybody.
Quote #5
He would destroy the idea of masters for good, and there would be no more slaves. One could call a master a good master because he did not whip his slaves, but ultimately he was still an owner of men, and men were not made to be owned. (6.111)
Once Toussaint gets that slavery is the problem, not individual men, things change for him. He signs up for the revolution and never looks back. His judgment might seem severe to us since his master was always good to him (by his own omission), but Toussaint knows that you can't make laws based on the goodness of one man. The system itself has to be changed from the ground up.
Quote #6
That book will open your mind, tell you how the Haitians rose up to throw off the yoke of oppression, man. These people who want to remove Aristide, they want to make us slaves again. Truth. Read that book, maybe you can help fight them better. (7.39)
Shorty might not be a slave in the same way that Toussaint is, where someone owned him, but his life sure operates in similar ways. Let's see how he rates on our slavery chart. Controlled by an oppressive system? Check. Unable to escape? Check. Left without options because of the evilness of the system? Check. Yep, we think it's safe to say that he's enslaved, too.