Pierre Toussaint was one of the slaves that the Berards, a former grand blanc slaveholding family from St. Domingue, brought with them to New York when they fled the Haitian revolution. Emancipated in 1807, Toussaint became a hairdresser, built a thriving business, and bought property.
Pierre Toussaint (1766-1853), who adopted his surname after his manumission, was renowned for his many philanthropic and charitable works in New York. He is buried in St. Patrick’s Cathedral and was declared “Venerable” by the late Pope John Paul II in 1996.
(via searchingforknowledge)
