Haiti was the second nation in the hemisphere to become independent, and the first black one to break free of European colonizers, yet its history stays largely unknown to Anglophone readers. This anthology sets out to change that by presenting the country through the words of Haitians from every social position.

Dozens of selections, most of them appearing in English for the first time, range across scholarly, literary, religious, visual, musical, and political culture: poems, novels, political tracts, essays, legislation, songs, folk tales. The span runs from indigenous Haiti before contact to the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake.

Familiar episodes appear, among them the United States military occupation and the Duvalier dictatorship, but so do stretches that usually get skipped, such as the decades following the second independence of 1934. Political upheaval, the environment, and modernization all come into view through the documents themselves.