Of the four men Bellegarde names as founders of Haitian independence, Petion is the least known abroad, and this short life sets out to change that.

Two claims carry it. Laws of 1809 and 1814 broke up the old colonial estates and distributed the parcels to soldiers and junior officers of the army of independence, creating a country of smallholders; Bellegarde treats this as the origin of Haiti's rural democracy and credits it with a social stability the political system never had. The constitution of 1816 made elementary schooling free, and Petion, following Condorcet, founded a lycee and a boarding school for girls at Port-au-Prince.

The second claim reaches beyond Haiti. When Bolivar took refuge there in 1815, Petion supplied money, arms and a printing press, declining public credit and asking only that slavery be abolished wherever the Liberator's arms prevailed, a promise made good at Ocumare in July 1816.