Epigraphs are like little appetizers to the great entrée of a story. They illuminate important aspects of the story, and they get us headed in the right direction.
At the beginning of the troubles in Haiti, I felt that I was destined to great things. When I received this divine intimation I was four-and-fifty years of age; I could neither read nor write.
Toussaint l'Ouverture in a letter to Napoléon Bonaparte
Though fallen thyself, never to rise again,
Live, and take comfort. Thou hast left behind
Powers that will work for thee; air, earth, and skies;
There's not a breathing of the common wind
That will forget thee; thou hast great allies;
Thy friends are exultations, agonies,
And love, and man's unconquerable mind.
William Wordsworth, To Toussaint l'Ouverture
What's up with the epigraph?
The book kicks off with two excerpts from historical figures. The first comes to us from Toussaint himself. It explains his experience as a military leader, while the second gives us Romantic poet William Wordsworth's impression of the leader.
Why start the book in this way? To answer, we'd like to take a closer look at Wordsworth's poem about the famous slave leader. Wordsworth says that no one will forget Toussaint, even the air and trees. That's how big a deal this guy is. Whether you know very much about the Haitian Revolution or not, we think we can all agree that turning Haiti into the world's first black republic and abolishing slavery is a really big deal.
In Darkness might talk about the struggle Toussaint and Shorty both have in bringing about independence to Haiti in very different ways, but these quotes remind us just how powerful this fight was. Even though Toussaint was captured by Napoleon's soldiers and died in a French dungeon in 1803 (just like in the book), the revolutionary process he helped lead could not be stopped.
Saint-Domingue (where Toussaint fought) became the independent black Republic of Haiti in 1804. Toussaint's victories helped the young United States by making the Louisiana Purchase possible, and gave us a courageous leader (a.k.a. Toussaint) in the process. The book reminds us that Toussaint might be dead, but his legacy lives on forever.