Recalling the life of Henry Christophe, Haiti’s first and last king

In a new book, Yale’s Marlene Daut follows the remarkable trajectory of Christophe’s life and Haiti’s transition from enslaved colony to free Black nation.

Apr 7, 2025

By Lisa Prevost

A large monument in a central square in Savannah, Georgia honors the Chasseurs-Volontaires of Saint-Domingue, a regiment of free men of African descent from what is now Haiti, who fought there for American independence in 1779. 

Standing alongside the armed soldiers depicted in the monument is a young drummer boy. He is Henry Christophe, then a boy of 12, and the future king of Haiti. 

Born in 1767 in the British colony of Grenada, Christophe emerged from an enslaved childhood to become a freedom fighter in the Haitian Revolution. He was eventually crowned Haiti’s first and only king in 1811, ruling over the northern region of the island. Yale’s Marlene Daut explores his life and legacy in her new book, “The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe” (Alfred A. Knopf). 

Daut, a professor of French and African Diaspora studies in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, said she wanted to tell the story of how Haiti went from enslaved colony to free Black nation as seen through the eyes of Christophe, who was on the front lines. 

“While the contemporary media often portray today’s Haiti as a land of perpetrators and victims ever in need of foreign occupation,” Daut writes, “the story of King Henry reveals a proud, determined and self-sufficient country whose culture was admired around the world, but one at the same time whose freedom many nations sought to strangle.” 

Daut’s previous book, “Awakening the Ashes: An Intellectual History of the Haitian Revolution,” was a co-winner of the 2024 Frederick Douglas Book Prize. 

Daut sat down with Yale News to talk about Christophe’s rise through the French military, his subsequent standoff against Napoléon Bonaparte, and the complicated legacy of his nine-year reign as king. The conversation has been condensed and edited. 

Read the interview here: https://news.yale.edu/2025/04/07/recalling-life-henry-christophe-haitis-first-and-last-king