Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Historian Daut (Awakening the Ashes) offers a powerful biography of Henry Christophe (1767-1820), who fought for, defected from, and ultimately ruled over Haiti. She first sketches out Christophe's sensational life story--born in Grenada, he went from a radical in search of a revolution (fighting briefly in the American one) to a commander of Haiti's revolutionary forces who crowned himself king--then pokes holes in the myth. Often presented as a cautionary example of revolutionaries' penchant for turning into dictators, Christophe instead emerges in Daut's telling as a complex figure in a world gripped by radical transformation. The dramatic hook of her narrative is Christophe's 1802 defection, when he was briefly wooed by Napoleon's promise that Haiti would be spared from reenslavement if it rejoined the empire. Because of Christophe's lapse ("a single bad decision, ricocheting like scattershot," Daut calls it), France was able to pursue a "war of extermination," committing atrocities on a scale "it might be hard for the modern reader to contemplate." The violence, however, reunified the revolutionaries, hardening their resolve. Moreover, according to Daut, as much as Christophe's kinghood was a betrayal of the revolution's principles, it was also a safeguard of independence in an era of revanchist monarchy; by facing down the restored Bourbon monarch king-to-king, Christophe proved that Haitians were not "playthings." The result is an expertly told and richly detailed reexamination of the revolutionary period. (Jan.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
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. VERDICT Many details of Christophe's life remain murky, but Daut's research is outstanding. She has unearthed new sources in Caribbean and European archives, and she weighs all evidence carefully and reaches judicious conclusions. This book's depth of detail may daunt general audiences, but it is a must-read for scholars.--Michael Rodriguez
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A biography of the iconic Black revolutionary that tries to separate caricature and idolatry from truth. Daut, professor of French and African diaspora studies at Yale and author ofAwakening the Ashes: An Intellectual History of the Haitian Revolution, reminds readers that Haiti was France's most prized colony, an island territory of plantations that led the world in sugar, coffee, and cotton production. It was also an oppressive slave society. Inspired by the French Revolution, enslaved people rebelled in 1791. Although France abolished slavery in 1794, Haitian whites refused to go along and fought back viciously, and Napoleon failed disastrously in an effort to restore slavery in 1802. A minor figure when the rebellion began, Christophe prospered steadily under its leader, Toussaint L'Ouverture. Once independence was achieved in 1804, rebel leaders turned on each other. After plotters assassinated Haiti's first emperor in 1806, Christophe declared himself king of northern Haiti, splitting the nation in two. Energetic if not widely beloved, he created a large system of nobility, built palaces, and instituted a feudal-style forced-labor system to revive the plantations. Ill and facing increasing opposition, he committed suicide in 1820. Daut's research answers peripheral questions (Christophe was almost certainly born in Grenada), but it remains uncertain whether he was born enslaved, and there are frustratingly few details of his service with French forces in the American Revolution, possibly as a drummer boy. Christophe's letters, reports, and proclamations, meanwhile, reveal few character flaws and a great deal of bombast. Scholarly insights into a grandiose historical character who remains an enigma. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
