New Perspectives on the Haitian Revolution

Although the events it describes occurred more than 200 years ago, the term “Haitian Revolution” has only come into widespread use in the past few decades. By putting the events that led to the western world’s first abolition of slavery on the same level as the American and French revolutions, this new language profoundly changes our understanding of the “age of revolutions.” The explosion of new scholarship on the Haitian Revolution is also changing our understanding of the meaning of this event and its place in world history. Jeremy D. Popkin, William T. Bryan Chair of History at the University of Kentucky, has written several books on the Haitian Revolution, including Facing Racial Revolution: Eyewitness Accounts of the Haitian Uprising (2007), You Are All Free: The Haitian Revolution and the Abolition of Slavery (2010), A Concise History of the Haitian Revolution (2012), and Mon Odyssée: L’épopée d’un colon de Saint Domingue (2015).