I Have Avenged America

Julia Gaffield is associate professor of history at William & Mary. She is the author of Haitian Connections in the Atlantic World: Recognition after Revolution. She lives in Williamsburg, VA.

A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year 2025“To better understand Haiti’s current plight . . . the tale of Jean-Jacques Dessalines is enlightening. . . . Gaffield paints a revisionist portrait of Dessalines as a brave freedom-fighter. Had it not been for Dessalines, slavery would probably have been reimposed in Haiti, Ms. Gaffield argues, setting back the global abolitionist movement.”—David C. Adams, Economist Newsletter on Latin America“Gaffield’s book leads the way to redressing one of the greatest historical injustices of modern times: the relegation of Dessalines to essentially a nobody. The silences and discourses that disparage him are also the silences and strategies to disqualify Haiti and the place of both the emperor and the country in the liberation of America.”—Lyonel Trouillot, AyiboPost (translated from the French)“In her groundbreaking biography, [Gaffield] has succeeded in the vital mission of offering a faithful account of Dessalines’s life, while underscoring his immense contributions not simply to Haitian freedom, but to the transatlantic abolitionist movement.”—Marlene L. Daut, Public Books“Absorbing.”—Sudhir Hazareesingh, Times Literary Supplement2025 HSA Book Prize Honorable Mention, sponsored by the Haitian Studies Association“At last, a biography of Jean‑Jacques Dessalines, the Haitian par excellence, the only hero of Independence to enter the Vodou pantheon! Julia Gaffield reconstructs the life of the father of the country with exhaustive research and easy‑to‑read prose that avoids value judgments while reflecting a sympathy for her subject that courses through the book.”—Jean Casimir, Université d’État d’Haïti“Charting Dessalines’s remarkable journey from enslavement to leadership of a revolutionary army and radical anticolonial nation‑state, Gaffield probes his character and contradictions more carefully than any scholar before her, offering brilliant insights into the political history of warfare, statecraft, and the struggle for human freedom.”—Vincent Brown, author of Tacky’s Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War“Julia Gaffield’s long‑awaited biography of Jean‑Jacques Dessalines paints a compelling portrait of one of Haiti’s most enigmatic leaders, a formerly enslaved man who became the nation’s first head of state. Based on prodigious new research, this fascinating book is also propulsively readable. A stunning achievement.”—Ada Ferrer, Princeton University“Beautifully and brilliantly told, this story of revolution, power, and political imagination challenges long-standing misrepresentations and powerfully illuminates the intertwined thought and action through which Dessalines reshaped the world.”—Laurent Dubois, author of Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution