Prologue: TK -- Author's note on terminology -- Introduction: On doing justice to Christophe's story -- A future king is born -- A child in a world of slavery and revolution -- Tracing genealogies to the future king -- Rising and falling with revolution -- Complicated victories -- Love, loss, and betrayal under uncertain skies -- America avenged -- Empires rise.... -- Cracks in imperial authority -- Empires fall.... -- The dawn of civil war -- A king is crowned -- Three French spies -- The age of Christophean diplomacy -- The age of Christophean prosperity -- Cracks in kingly authority -- A king is gone, but not forgotten -- Kingdom of the next world -- Epilogue: The greatest heist in history -- Acknowledgments -- Illustration credits -- List of abbreviations

"The essential biography of the controversial rebel, traitor, and only king of Haiti. Henry Christophe (1767 - 1820) is one of the most richly complex figures in the history of the Americas, and was, in his time, popular and famous the world over: in The First and Last King of Haiti, a brilliant young Yale scholar unravels the still controversial enigma that he was"--