Madiou follows the war of independence month by month, and largely from the side of the indigenes. The campaigns in the South around Les Cayes and Jeremie, the fighting of the Arcahaie units along the western coast, and the operations of Geffrard, Gerin, Ferou and Dessalines are given in close detail, down to powder smuggled into besieged towns under women's skirts, forced loans levied on white merchants, and truces that opened markets between the two sides.

The narrative is unsparing about atrocity in both directions: Rochambeau's reprisals in the West, prisoners drowned or sold as slaves to Cuba and Porto Rico, a French officer tortured and hanged with a placard on his back.

Madiou also gives room to the fractures within the independence camp. African bands in the North under Petit Noel Pierre and Lamour Derance held aloof from Dessalines, and some of their chiefs treated with the French instead, accepting commissions and opening markets outside Le Cap.