Master of the Crossroads - Madison Smartt Bell [0]
Title Page
Dedication
Epigraph
Praise
Fort de Joux, France August 1802
Part One - KALFOU DANJERE 1793–1794
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Fort de Joux, France August 1802
Part Two - BLACK SPARTACUS 1794–1796
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Fort de Joux, France September 1802
Part Three - GOUTÉ SEL 1796–1798
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Fort de Joux, France September 1802
Part Four - THE WAR OF KNIVES 1799–1801
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Fort de Joux, France September 1802
GLOSSARY
CHRONOLOGY OF HISTORICAL EVENTS
ORIGINAL LETTERS AND DOCUMENTS
CLASSIFICATION OF RACES IN COLONIAL SAINT DOMINGUE
A NOTE ON CREOLE ORTHOGRAPHY
Acknowledgments
About the Author
ALSO BY MADISON SMARTT BELL
Copyright Page
Most special thanks to Jane Gelfman, Cork Smith, Dan Frank, Lisa Hamilton, and Altie Karper for arduous, painstaking work on the manuscript, and to Bill Buford and Sonny Mehta for taking the chance when the risk was high.
Sometimes, if you let a man live, he is less dangerous than if you kill him. If you kill him, You will never be rid of him.
—Jean-Bertrand Aristide as quoted by Amy Wilentz in The Rainy Season
ACCLAIM FOR Madison Smartt Bell’s
MASTER of the CROSSROADS
“A stunning achievement: marvelously crafted, meticulous in its historical detail, magnificent in its sweep.”—The Seattle Times
“[A] rich novel. . . . Its huge tapestry of scenes on battlefields and plantations, in ranches and churches, vibrantly reanimates Bell’s cast of real and fictional characters. . . . [Toussaint] is now one of the great characters in modern literature.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“An absorbing and . . . majestic read. . . . [Bell] could not have chosen a more resonant setting than Haiti, nor found a more telling figure in whom to summon contemporary hopes and fears.”—Chicago Tribune
“This meticulously researched novel has the feel of a tableau by Delacroix: a generous swirl of individual and collective fervor.”—The New Yorker
“A fascinating tale. . . . Bell rides his near-perfect prose style through the terrain of the human psyche with astonishing ease.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Bell has learned well the lessons of [Tolstoy]. . . . [The] human drama of families, lovers and individual quests for self-knowledge envelops the reader in a brilliant blend of history and fiction.”— The Oregonian
“Atmospheric, well-researched, and well-written. . . . The unfolding of Haitian history is a fascinating tale, and Bell tells it with great skill.”—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“Provides a history lesson that tells us much about our present and, perhaps, constitutes a warning for our future.”—The Miami Herald
“Read this novel to get a feel of life and death in the midst of one of the New World’s major political and military uprisings . . . in this trilogy we find the talented Madison Smartt Bell at the crossroads of his career.”—The Dallas Morning News
FOR PÈRE ANTOINE ADRIEN, WHO HAS OFFERED HIS LIFE TO THIS HISTORY
Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Lóló Beaubrun, Guidel Présumé, Jean de la Fontaine, Alex Roshuk, Gesner Pierre, Monique Clesca, Lyonel Trouillot, Sabine Sannon, Rodney Saint-Eloi, Ephèle Milcé, Carmen, Eddie Lubin, Mimerose Beaubrun, Russell Banks, Anne-Carinne Trouillot, Edwidge Danticat, Patrick Delatour, Gabrielle Saint-Eloi, Meg Roggansack, Richard Morse, Michelle Karshan, Evelyne Trouillot-Ménard, Georges Castera, Yannick Lahens, Gary Victor, Philippe Manassé, Claudette Edoissaint, Joel Turenne, Yves Colon, Anna Wardenberg, Benoit Clément Junior, Bob Shacochis, Edouard Duval-Carrié, Patrick Vilaire, C. S. Godshalk, Père Max Dominique, Père William Smarth, Judith Thorne, Bernard Éthéart, Bryant Freeman, Ken Maki, Didier Dominique,