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  Beaubrun Ardouin and the Historiographical Treatment of Toussaint, Dessalines, Pétion, and Christophe By Patrick Prézeau Stephenson * (Le Français suit) The work of Beaubrun Ardouin , and especially his Études sur l’histoire d’Haïti , occupies a central place in nineteenth-century Haitian historiography. Long read as a first-rank source on the Haitian Revolution and the early decades of independence, it also deserves to be studied as a work of political and memorial construction. Ardouin does not simply recount events; he orders the past, ranks historical actors, distributes admiration and reserve, and offers, through his writing, a particular vision of the Haitian nation. In this respect, the way he treats Toussaint Louverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, Alexandre Pétion, and Henri Christophe is especially revealing. These four figures stand at the heart of the Haitian national narrative. Each embodies a distinct mode of power, a conception of the state, and a political mem...