Implementing equality in the colonies

Jean de Lacoste (1730-1814).

Mémoire pour le citoyen Lacoste, ex-ministre de la marine.

Paris, J. Girouard, [1792].

8°. 40 pp. Later decorated paper boards with title-shield on spine.

Jean de Lacoste, who had become Minister of the Navy during the Revolution, was sent to the French West Indies to reorganize the colonial regime there according to the new Revolutionary values. However, there was much resistance in the colonies against the new Revolutionary regime for fear of the abolition of slavery and the collapse of the plantation economy. Upon his return to mainland France Lacoste had to answer before the criminal court for his actions in the colonies and he was subsequently acquitted. His defence was published in the volume we offer here. He responds point by point to the accusations made to him on the way in which he applied in the Antilles the decree of March 28, 1792 which granted the same rights to colonists and people of colour.

Condition: slightly browned and a few (ink) stains, otherwise in good condition.