[François Laplace].  

Histoire des désastres de Saint-Domingue, précédée d'un tableau du régime et des progrès de cette colonie, depuis sa fondation, jusqu'à l'époque de la Révolution française; Avec carte.

Paris, Garnery, an III (1795).

8°. XII, 388 pp. With a folding map of Hispaniola.

Contemporary handwritten marginal notes in ink on p. 79, p. 141 and p. 186 which provide additional information on specific plantations.

Later half calf with smooth spine and marbled sides.

Rare anonymous work on the “disastrous” racial revolution and the subsequent abolition of slavery in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), covering the events of the summer of 1793 and their endorsement by the National Convention in 1794. The account is preceded by a historical overview of the political and economic development of the colony from its founding until the outbreak of the French Revolution.
Long misattributed to Michel-Étienne Descourtilz (as still listed in the JCB catalogue) or François Barbé de Marbois, the work was convincingly identified by Jean-Charles Benzaken as the work of Citizen François Laplace, based on manuscript evidence preserved in a copy at the municipal library of Grenoble (see: Who was the author of 'L’Histoire des désastres de Saint-Domingue'). It is exceptionally rare, with only one recorded appearance at auction, in 1953.
This copy is of particular interest for its contemporary handwritten notes, providing additional information on three major plantations in Saint-Domingue: Barré de Saint-Venant, Laborie, and Corregeolles.

Literature:

Benzaken, Jean-Charles. “Who Was the Author of L’Histoire Des Désastres de Saint-Domingue, Published in Paris in the Year III?” French history 23.2 (2009): 261–267. Web.

Bissainthe, M. Dict. de bib. haïtienne, 5453.

Popkin, Jeremy D. Facing Racial Revolution: Eyewitness Accounts of the Haitian Insurrection. University of Chicago Press, 2007.

Condition: Spine faded, some light marginal dampstains.