Verlag: Saint-Marc, 1790
Manuskript / Papierantiquität Erstausgabe
Manuscript on paper. 1 leaf, written in a clear secretarial hand on both sides, signed by Bacon La Chevalerie, Hanus de Jumécourt, Valentin de Cullion, de Bourcel, Vincendon Dutour, and Guerin (?) (secretary). 2 pp. Signed manuscript document from the escalating confrontation between the colonial Assembly of Saint-Marc and the royal governor. The text records the resolution adopted by the Assemblée Générale de la Partie Française de Saint-Domingue during its session of 24 April 1790, following the reading of a letter sent two days earlier by Governor Louis Antoine de Thomassin, comte de Peynier, condemning the Assembly's recent acts and asserting the supremacy of royal authority. The deputies declared the letter "the delirium of despotism and pride," while acknowledging Peynier's personal virtues. Their decree invites him to appear before the Assembly "to make known his principles and his true opinion," appointing Caradeux et Caradeux de la Cayes to deliver this summonsmembers of the prominent planter family active in colonial politics (cf. Généalogie et Histoire de la Caraïbe, 2025, art. 63)and warning that his refusal might compel them to take "disagreeable measures." Finally, the Assembly resolves that the Governor-General shall occupy within it the same position as the King's ministers in the National Assemblyan explicit limitation of his authority. Signed by several key figures of the early Saint-Domingue revolution: Bacon de La Chevalerie (17311821), president of the first provincial assembly of the northern part of the colony and later leader of the faction des Léopardins; Charles-Arnould-Ignace Hanus de Jumécourt (17491798), former artillery officer and mayor of La Croix-des-Bouquets; Valentin de Cullion (17341821), lawyer and planter, later author of Examen de l'esclavage en général (Paris, 1802); Louis-Nicolas-Antoine de Bourcel (b. 1754), conseiller du roi and procureur général at the Conseil Supérieur du Port-au-Prince; and Étienne-Guillaume Vincendon-Dutour, avocat at the Conseil Supérieur de Saint-Domingue and later president of the Western Provincial Committee, who emigrated to the United States in 1798. The document reflects the mounting tension between the Assembly and the Governor in the spring of 1790an assertion of colonial autonomy that foreshadowed Peynier's decision to disperse the deputies by force during the night of 2930 July 1790. . Light toning, horizontal fold mark, small crease at upper left corner. Otherwise clean and well preserved, in fine condition. Manuscript on paper. 1 leaf, written in a clear secretarial hand on both sides, signed by Bacon La Chevalerie, Hanus de Jumécourt, Valentin de Cullion, de Bourcel, Vincendon Dutour, and Guerin (?) (secretary).