The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe

Daut (French and African diaspora studies, Yale Univ.; Awakening the Ashes: An Intellectual History of the Haitian Revolution), one of the foremost historians of Haiti, has penned a groundbreaking scholarly biography of Henry Christophe (1767–1820). Born to an enslaved mother, the revolutionary leader helped liberate Haiti from the French but then proclaimed himself king of Haiti. He ruled the country’s northern part as a despot from 1807 to 1820, until his death by suicide. This book shows that sensationalist and often racist accounts—many devised by his enemies—painted Christophe as a brutal tyrant, but Daut portrays him as a far more complex person. For example, Christophe also built schools and hospitals, raided ships to free enslaved Africans, and fortified his kingdom against French invasion. France, Daut indicates, took advantage of his death to extort 150 million francs in reparations from his successors, crippling Haiti’s economy for a century.