An Hour With Pierre Toussaint

Spend an hour with this charitable man who rose from the humblest beginning to capture the attention of New York City. Pierre Toussaint was born a slave of the Roman Catholic Bérard family in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti). When the slaves of the island revolted in 1791, Bérard moved to New York with his family and five slaves, including Toussaint, his younger sister, and his aunt. Apprenticed to a local hairdresser, Pierre learned the trade quickly and eventually worked very su