Why is Ti Noel the protagonist

Ti Noël doesn't understand white culture, which seems foreign to him. He listens to the stories of Macandal and admires what he knows of tribal African culture. Ti Noël travels to Cuba when his master feels Santo Domingo, and in Cuba, he manages to save money to escape back to his old home, which is now the first free black land in the New World. Ti Noël is at first overjoyed to find a land where voodoo is practiced openly, but he is soon disappointed. Ti Noël learns that a land where blacks are in power does not mean there is no slavery, and he turns against the black king who commits his people to forced labor to build a giant fortress. He gains a hatred toward king, any king.

After the overthrow of King Henri Christophe, in which Ti Noël participates as a looter, he imagines himself a benign king and becomes a local character. However, he lives to see yet another ruling class, the island's mulatto population, gain power and begin enslaving the people. As an old man, Ti Noël still rails against slavery and suffering, but he has a revelation that man is at his best when he is suffering on Earth and always striving to better himself.