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Manuscript letter on the “Revolt of the Mulattoes”.

Haiti (Saint-Domingue), August 1791.

4°. 4 pp. Manuscript in brown ink on paper.

An exceptionally vivid eyewitness report written at the moment Saint-Domingue was descending into general insurrection. Addressed to the merchant house of Foache Brothers at Le Havre, the anonymous writer describes the formation of rebel camps at Les Verrettes, the dispatch of troops from Port-au-Prince and Saint-Marc, attempts at negotiation with insurgents, and violent divisions among colonial forces. He reports duels between soldiers, a warship forced out of harbor, and the spreading instability of the ports.

Of particular interest are the references to the broader Atlantic crisis: arms smuggling from Jamaica, rumors of British troop landings, the weakness of paper money (assignats), shortages of provisions, and the paralysis of the slave market (“the enslaved are not selling at all”). The striking phrase “Ah, good God, what a revolution!” conveys the immediacy and alarm of the moment.

Written only days before the great slave uprising of 22 August 1791, this letter captures the confused, militarized, and racialized conditions from which the Haitian Revolution would erupt.

Condition: folds and creases, light browning and staining; small damage affecting a single word only; otherwise very legible.