Scholars have long held that the Atlantic powers sealed Haiti off after the declaration of independence in 1804. Gaffield shows that trade, correspondence and legal argument in fact flowed steadily between the new nation and the empires around it, and that Dessalines, Pétion and Christophe worked the openings that European warfare created. Belligerent Britain and the neutral United States, Denmark and the Batavian Republic each faced different constraints under the law of nations, which shaped how far each could deal with Haitian leaders over French objections. Non-recognition, on this account, coexisted with dense practical contact, and the weight scholars place on racial fear explains only part of what foreign officials did. The evidence is assembled from repositories in Haiti, France, Jamaica, England, the United States, the Netherlands and Denmark: diplomatic despatches, parliamentary and congressional debate, merchant letters, and the testimony of captains and the rulings of judges in prize cases.