A very good copy of a scarce eighteenth-century Port-au-Prince imprint.
Formed on 15 May 1790, a group of white planters, opposed to reforms being made by the French National Assembly, formed their own Colonial Assembly. Unsurprisingly, the Léopardins as they were also known, were all in favour of slavery, but they were also opposed to the granting of citizenship or voting rights to free people of colour. Their opposition was so staunch that they published their own constitution for the colony, declaring the port open to international trade, and demanded secession.
In response to Louis-Antoine Thomassin Peynier, governor of Santo Domingo, dissolving the manu militari of the Assembly on the night of July 29-30, 1790, a week later persuaded the crew of Le Léopard to mutiny and they sailed the captured ship to France where they put their argument to the National Assembly. On 12 October the French National Assembly, having heard them out, nonetheless formally dissolved the Colonial Assembly.
Dated August 29, 1790, this new proclamation by Louis-Antoine Thomassin Peynier, revisits the reasons for the dissolution of the Colonial Assembly. He attempts to resume the legal process of electing the assemblies, and invites the parishes to appoint new representatives, in accordance with the decree of the National Assembly of March 8 and the Instruction of March 28 previous. The dissolution of the assembly of Saint-Marc was the central act of his brief governorship.
Alongside the enslaved population and free people of colour, they constituted a third significant party en route to the Haitian Revolution which broke out almost a year to the day later.
OCLC locates copies at AAS, JCB, BPL, Columbia, NYPL, UNC Chapel Hill, and BnF.
Not in Sabin; Bissainthe, M., Dict. de bib. hai¨tienne, 7290; Martin & Walter, Re´volution franc¸aise, 26662.
