Siblings of Soil

Siblings of Soil is an excellent and urgently needed book. It tells the story of the Haitian Revolution and Haitian independence from a new and necessary vantage point (Santo Domingo), while also narrating the reality of Dominican decolonization and Haitian unification. The author situates this layered and complex narrative in the histories of the Spanish Empire, the French Empire, the Haitian Revolution, and Latin American wars for independence, placing it at the crux of multiple historiographies for a broad audience.

— Julia Gaffield, College of William and Mary, author of Haitian Connections in the Atlantic World: Recognition after Revolution

Yingling offers a major contribution to the scholarship on the Age of Revolutions through the lens of the island of Hispaniola. His well-researched and illuminating presentation challenges historical distortions and sheds light on cooperative anticolonial defiance and political and cultural interdependence between Haitians and the Dominicans in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

— Michele Reid-Vazquez, University of Pittsburgh, author of The Year of the Lash: Free People of Color in Cuba and the Nineteenth-Century Atlantic World

Yingling’s Siblings of Soil is a history of the Haitian Revolution and its aftermath that focuses on the militaristic, religious, and kinship ties between Haitians and the Spanish side of the island. Grounded in astonishing archival research that spans Europe, the Caribbean, the United States, and Australia, Siblings of Soil demonstrates how African descendants across Hispaniola collaborated across time to ultimately unify the island under Haiti in 1822. This contribution centers the whole island in the broader historical literature on the Age of Revolutions. It moreover is a poignant reminder of a bygone era of cooperation in the forging of an independent, anti-slavery, and anti-colonial Black state. The Isis Duarte Book Prize committee commends Siblings of Soil for its extraordinary research and timely innovation.

— Isis Duarte Prize Committee, Haiti/ Dominican Republic section of the Latin American Studies Association

Yingling . . . masterfully [argues] that the Dominican Republic did not gain independence from but rather separated itself from Haiti. He also provides pertinent examples of Dominican influence on Haiti in its early years and of collaborative efforts between the two 'siblings.' . . Importantly, Yingling locates Santo Domingo in the historiography of the Age of Revolutions. Haiti, at least, has received more recognition in this era given the significance of the Haitian Revolution. . . This well-researched book incorporates archival material from Haiti, the Dominican Republic, France, Spain, Cuba, and Vatican City. . . Highly recommended.

— CHOICE