Podcast Summary:

"I Have Avenged America: Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Haiti’s Fight for Freedom"

Podcast: New Books Network
Host: Dr. Christina Gessler
Guest: Dr. Julia Gaffield, author & historian
Date: September 18, 2025

Overview

This episode explores Dr. Julia Gaffield’s new book, I Have Avenged America: Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Haiti’s Fight for Freedom, a deeply researched biography that reframes Dessalines—not just as a revolutionary leader, but as a complex, strategic, and often misunderstood figure in Haitian and Atlantic history. The conversation delves into historical myth-making, the challenge of reconstructing voices erased by colonial powers, and Dessalines’s enduring legacy.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Dr. Julia Gaffield’s Academic Journey

• Gaffield’s path from athlete to historian was unplanned; she shifted focus after discovering a passion for history in college, especially Caribbean history.
• A pivotal class by Melanie Newton introduced her to the Haitian Revolution and the importance of undertold stories.
  • Quote: “It was a class... and she first taught me about the Haitian Revolution. We read CLR James in her class, and that was kind of... I never looked back.” (05:18)

2. Motivation for Writing the Book

• Gaffield was struck by how the Haitian Revolution’s story often ends at independence, omitting how Haiti sustained sovereignty in a hostile world.
• Biography gap: While Toussaint Louverture is celebrated, narrative gaps about Dessalines persist, partly because of a propagandistic “biography” used to undermine Haitian sovereignty.
  • Quote: “I saw a real need to tell his story, especially kind of in conversation with these other publications about Toussaint.” (08:36)

3. Propaganda & Historical Narrative

• The only “biography” during Dessalines’ life was anti-Haitian propaganda, written by Dubroca, a mouthpiece for the Napoleonic government, depicting Dessalines as a savage and unfit ruler.
• This book’s wide circulation gave it disproportionate influence compared to authentic Haitian accounts, which had far more limited reach.
  • Quote: “He just... used them for another book on Dessalines... the point was to kind of paint him as this, you know, savage, barbaric, hyper-violent man that... could not possibly be trusted.” (10:24)
  • The legitimacy of this narrative stemmed from the presumed proximity of its European author, not from factual authority.

4. Violence, Double Standards, & Revolutionary Tactics

• Gaffield dismantles the trope of Dessalines as exceptionally violent, contextualizing his actions within the violence of colonialism and slavery.
• There was a persistent double standard: European violence was seen as acceptable, whereas Haitian violence—even in defense or strategy—was demonized.
  • Quote: “There’s a kind of denial of that kind of violence, but... the Haitian revolutionaries were responding to that violence... by themselves fighting for their lives, fighting for their freedom.” (17:01)
• Dessalines at times used his own fierce reputation strategically for survival and diplomacy.

5. Reclaiming Dessalines’ Voice

• Gaffield made it a central aim to let Dessalines speak through his own words—letters, proclamations, and orders—countering assumptions of his illiteracy and lack of agency.
  • Quote: “For somebody who was allegedly illiterate, he sure produced a whole lot of text... So his voice, his language, his word choice was really important to me.” (21:11)
• While Dessalines used secretaries, so did most political leaders; his input and signature made these documents an authentic reflection of his thinking.

6. Research Challenges: Filling in Biographical Gaps

• Dr. Gaffield’s process involved piecing together meager documents (often just a single colonial mention) and filling gaps with context about plantation life and social structures.
  • Quote: “Writing 30+ years of somebody’s life with one document is not ideal for a historian... You have to do a lot more work... to build out with evidence the kind of world that he lived in.” (25:12)
• Reveals racialized gaps: records about enslaved people and people of color were seldom preserved, making genealogical work and personal history reconstruction especially challenging.

7. Dessalines’ Networks and Personal Life

• Despite the scarcity of records, evidence shows Dessalines valued loyalty and community—surrounding himself with childhood friends and family members.
  • The name “Duclos” (from his first enslaver) persistently linked him to his early life; fellow officers remained close throughout his career.
  • Quote: “Once you look for it, even if small amounts, there is evidence of these personal relationships... moments of humor and levity, but as you said, deep loyalty.” (31:32)

8. Setting the Historical Scene: Early Independence Haiti

• The post-independence state was threatened externally by France and internally required immense social and economic reorganization.
  • Dessalines’ government implemented new labor codes to maintain the export economy needed for survival—controversially echoing aspects of the plantation system, but with key differences.
  • Defending sovereignty was paramount, often at the expense of popular support for labor policies.

9. International Perceptions and the Power of Narrative

• Despite Haiti’s small geographic size, global attention was fixed on it due to its economic significance (the richest colony via sugar exports) and the revolutionary abolition of slavery.
  • Rival world powers were intent on seeing Haiti fail, fearing abolition’s contagious potential.
  • Dessalines and Haitian revolutionaries recognized the power of international narrative, actively sending proclamations to foreign newspapers.
  • Quote: “There’s an intentional... sending proclamations to U.S. newspapers to have them printed. The Haitian Declaration of Independence gets printed throughout the United States... They’re recognizing that, ‘oh, we need to tell our story too.’” (42:12)

10. Abolition as Global Threat

• Haiti’s universal, immediate abolition—accomplished by the enslaved themselves—was particularly threatening to the Atlantic order because it overturned both economic and racial hierarchies.
  • Quote: “It’s both about abolition, but also about how abolition came about. It’s a violent fight... and it is immediate and universal, every single person right now, forever.” (45:08)

11. Dessalines, Memory, and Legacy

• Dessalines anticipated being maligned in global history and issued proclamations “to the inhabitants of the universe,” asserting confidence in the justice of his actions.
  • Quote: “He was comfortable with what he had done and how he had achieved it, but he knew... the narrative would be unkind, untruthful... but he didn’t really care.” (47:19)
• His historical memory was later contested—at times celebrated as a national icon in Haiti, at other times used by adversaries to deny Haiti’s legitimacy.
  • Quote: “For more than two centuries, Jean-Jacques Dessalines’ life and legacy have been celebrated, condemned, co-opted, and fictionalized... Haitians call on the memory of Dessalines... foreigners have used Dessalines to argue the opposite, that Haiti is unfit for self-rule.” (49:44; Christina quoting Julia’s book)

12. Contemporary Resonance

• Dr. Gaffield hopes readers and listeners reconsider traditional narratives about Dessalines and the Haitian Revolution, recognizing the depth, complexity, and humanity of its figureheads.
  • Quote: “Dessalines is often subject to criticisms that he was violent because he was... naturally a violent person. I think that quotation really highlights that he was using violence as a last resort rather than a first resort.” (53:54)
  • She advocates for approaching Haiti’s history through multiple sources and perspectives, not just one narrative.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On revolutionary narratives:
  • “The story of the Haitian Revolution... ended with the Haitian declaration of independence... But what happens after the Revolution? And if everybody wanted Haiti to fail, how did it succeed?” (05:18)
• On propaganda:
  • “Dubroca... had previously written an alleged biography of Toussaint Louverture... He just... used them for another book on Dessalines.” (10:24)
• On violence and double standards:
  • “There’s no recognition that that is a legitimate fight on the part of the colonizers.” (16:14)
• On reconstructing a lost voice:
  • “For somebody who was allegedly illiterate, he sure produced a whole lot of text...” (21:11)
• On the global stakes of Haiti’s revolution:
  • “[It was] not only that they had abolished slavery, but how they did it.” (44:43)
• Dessalines’ awareness of history’s judgment:
  • “He doesn’t care. Whatever I’m writing, it is irrelevant to whatever Dessalines did or whatever.” (48:14)
• Closing words—on listening to Dessalines:
  • “Do not unheard, accuse us of cruelty. Remember our past sufferings, and you will judge less severely our present acts of necessity, of despair. And to such a plea, we must listen.” (53:29, quoting Dessalines and Gaffield)

Timestamps for Major Segments

• 01:59 – 05:04: Dr. Gaffield’s academic journey & seminal university class
• 05:18 – 08:47: The undertold story of Haiti post-independence & Toussaint vs. Dessalines
• 08:59 – 12:01: Propaganda, Dubroca’s biography, and legitimacy battles
• 14:29 – 19:22: Double standards of violence & revolution
• 20:38 – 25:12: Reconstructing Dessalines’s voice and textual legacy
• 25:12 – 32:56: Biographical research challenges; family, community, and records
• 33:09 – 37:33: Haiti in early independence: threat, defense, and economics
• 39:02 – 44:43: Media, perceptions, and the narrative fight
• 44:43 – 47:19: The threat of Haitian abolition and global reverberations
• 47:19 – 51:11: Dessalines’s anticipation of his contested legacy
• 51:11 – 56:12: Legacy, complexity, and final messages to listeners

Takeaways & Closing Reflections

• Dr. Gaffield urges listeners to recognize the complexity and agency of Jean-Jacques Dessalines—not as caricatured by propaganda, but as a strategic, loyal, and visionary figure.
• She emphasizes the power of narrative: who tells history, whose voices get heard, and how records (and their destruction or survival) shape understanding.
• Dessalines personified both the hardships and triumphs of revolutionary Haiti—his story is both intensely personal and profoundly political.
• Ultimately, listeners are encouraged to approach Haiti’s history with curiosity and depth, consulting multiple perspectives to do justice to this pivotal revolution and its controversial, compelling leaders.