Identity elements
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Folder
Title
Military commission signed, appointing Jean Baptiste de Cressac as “Capitaine d’Infanterie Mulatres”
Date(s)
- June 25, 1779 (Creation)
Extent
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
"A scarce example of a French military commission issued in the Caribbean during the American War of Independence, this document on vellum bears the signature of the French governor general of the island of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), Robert-Maurice, Comte d’Argout (d.1780), Creole sugar plantation owner and former governor of Martinique (1776-1777). Dated 25 June 1779, this commission appoints Jean-Baptiste de Cressac, a Creole owner of plantations of coffee, indigo and cotton as captain in the mixed race infantry ('d’Infanterie Mulatres') in the Saint-Domingue militia, Port-de-Paix batallion, parish of Gros Morne." –Description from Samuel Gedge, bookseller