The Haitian Revolution : a documentary history /

This extraordinary collection of primary-source documents, introduced, translated, and edited by a prominent scholar of the Haitian Revolution, offers a fascinating window into the slave uprising that began in Saint-Domingue in 1791 and culminated with the emergence of an independent black Haiti in 1803. Geggus (Univ. of Florida) has carefully selected rarely seen documents from multiple international archives, ranging from eyewitness accounts of slave trading, racial discrimination, and insurrection to contemporary descriptions of Toussaint Louverture, his government, and varied overseas reactions to Haitian independence. It offers more detailed coverage than Laurent Dubois and John D. Garrigus's Slave Revolution in the Caribbean, 1789-1804: A Brief History with Documents (Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006) by providing twice the number of primary documents. The introduction is crisp and concise and concludes with a helpful time line of important events. Each of the ten chronologically and thematically arranged chapters includes a succinct introductory section and primary source extracts preceded by a brief explanatory note. Serious readers of Caribbean history will benefit from the insights this rich collection offers. A must for all academic and public libraries. Summing Up: Essential. Undergraduates through researchers/faculty; general readers. --Brooke N Newman, Virginia Commonwealth University