Identity elements
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Folder
Title
Imprint from Saint-Domingue: La commune des Cayes constituante, a l'Assemblée Coloniale de la Partie Française de St. Domingue. En Assemblée réguliere, le 6 Mai 1792.
Date(s)
- 1792 (Creation)
Extent
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
"...An unrecorded pamphlet, printed by a government press in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, documenting the emotional and political reactions to the beginnings of the Haitian Revolution, a critical moment in Caribbean colonial history.
On 14 August 1791, under the charge of enslaved leader Dutty Boukman, and the Vodou prophetess Cécile Fatiman, about two hundred enslaved people in the northern regions of the isle of Saint-Domingue took the Oath of Bois Caïman, committing to an orchestrated revolt against their white enslavers. The conflict was the only successful revolt of enslaved people in modern history and resulted in the establishment of the autonomous nation of Haiti in 1804, after 13 years of open conflict.
The document was printed during the initial shockwave generated by the rebellion, which began in the north of the island and developed after mass killings of white landowners and their families into a military conflict between revolutionary factions. Our document, written by one Goujon representative of the people of the commune of Cayes and addressed to the Colonial Assembly of Saint Domingue urges three central points: 1) A strengthening of the role of communes and municipalities in order to consolidate republican ideals on the island; 2) maintenance of freedom of the press, which had been restricted in other parts of the colony, and 3) delegation of the restoration of order to the executive branch of the government in the face of the accelerating violence of the rebellion..."--Description from W. S. Cotter Rare Books.