The Haitian Declaration of Independence: Creation, Context, and Legacy

Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2016. Hardcover. VG/VG. Blue cloth boards with silver spine lettering; bw illustrated dust jacket, x, 280 pp, bw illustration. " While the Age of Revolution has long been associated with the French and American Revolutions, increasing attention is being paid to the Haitian Revolution as the third great event in the making of the modern world. A product of the only successful slave revolution in history, Haiti's Declaration of Independence in 1804 stands at a major turning point in the trajectory of social, economic, and political relations in the modern world. This declaration created the second independent country in the Americas and certified a new genre of political writing. Despite Haiti's global significance, however, scholars are only now beginning to understand the context, content, and implications of the Haitian Declaration of Independence." - dust jacket. Contents include: Introduction / David Armitage and Julia Gaffield -- Part 1. Writing the Declaration -- Haiti's Declaration of Independence / David Geggus -- "Victims of our own credulity and indulgence" : the life of Louis Felix Boisrond-Tonnerre / John Garrigus -- The debate surrounding the printing of the Haitian Declaration of Independence : a review of the literature / Patrick Tardieu -- Living by metaphor in the Haitian Declaration of Independence : tigers and cognitive theory / Deborah Jenson -- Part 2. Haitian independence and the Atlantic -- Law, Atlantic revolutionary exceptionalism, and the Haitian Declaration of Independence / Malick W. Ghachem -- Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Norbert Thoret, and the violent aftermath of the Haitian Declaration of Independence / Jeremy D. Popkin -- Dessalines' plan to export the Haitian Revolution? / Philippe Girard -- Part 3. The legacy of the Haitian Declaration of Independence -- "Outrages on the laws of nations" : American merchants and diplomacy after the Haitian Declaration of Independence / Julia Gaffield -- The sovereign people of Haiti during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries / Jean Casimir -- Thinking Haitian independence in Haitian Vodou / Laurent Dubois -- Revolutionary commemorations : Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Haitian Independence Day, 1804-1904 / Erin Zavitz -- Appendix.