Wednesday, February 5, 4 pm
Sterling Memorial Library Lecture Hall

“The First and Last King of Haiti”

Marlene Daut, Professor of French and African Diaspora Studies at Yale, has written a biography of the famous and infamous turn-of-the-19th-century figure Henry Christophe.

Christophe was a once enslaved West African who became a leader in the Haitian revolution against France, eventually a traitor to fellow revolutionaries, and the only monarch of the Kingdom of Haiti. 

The book is a riveting tale, not only of geopolitical clashes on a grand scale in 18th-century Haiti but also of friendship and loyalty, treachery and betrayal, heroism and strife in an era of revolutionary upheaval.

The author will be in conversation with Grégory Pierrot, associate professor of English at the University of Connecticut–Stamford, where he teaches American and African American literature.

The author will be available to sign books after the presentation. Books will be sold at the event, but participants are also welcome to bring books they have purchased in advance.