Poet, playwright, and scholar Kamau Brathwaite has written the powerful Foreword to this volume, which combines scholarship, experience, and inspiration to reveal the complex history of the island that Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic. Chapters cover pre-Columbian and colonial history; critical events and people of the Haitian Revolution; the tangle of U.S.–Haitian relations, including the special relationship with Louisiana; Haitian connections to South America; and the contested border with the neighboring Dominican Republic. Revolutionary Freedoms also includes an interview with the artist, a section on women in the nation’s history, and suggested reading.