In this ambitious book, Girard employs the latest tools of the historian's craft, multi-archival research in particular, and applies them to the climactic yet poorly understood last years of the Haitian Revolution. Haiti lost most of its archives to neglect and theft, but a substantial number of documents survive in French, U.S., British, and Spanish collections, both public and private. In all, this book relies on contemporary military, commercial, and administrative sources drawn from nineteen archives and research libraries on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Black Napoleon : Louverture and the 1801 Constitution -- The White Toussaint : Bonaparte's decision to invade Saint-Domingue -- Eve of a battle : planning the Leclerc expedition -- King of the Tropics : the Atlantic Crossing and the Moyse Uprising -- Parley : the French landing -- Supply and demand : Leclerc's diplomacy with the United States, Cuba, and Jamaica -- Ash and iron : the Spring campaign -- Lull : love, loot, labor, and Louverture's exile -- Mal de Siam : the yellow fever epidemic -- Faux Pas : the maroon uprising -- Revolt : the defection of the colonial army -- Reprieve : Rochambeau and the French counteroffensive -- Unity is strength : dessalines and the unification of the rebel army -- Echoes of Saint-Domingue : Louverture's captivity and the Louisiana Purchase -- New enemy, new partner : the British navy at war -- Sodom and Gomorrah : life in besieged French towns -- Resolution : the rebel victory -- Liberty and death : Haitian independence -- The long way home : French refugees and the Fall of Santo Domingo -- Conclusion.