Léger-Félicité Sonthonax (1763–1813).

Autograph document signed, recommending a colonial police officer for appointment to the National Gendarmerie.

Cap-Français, Saint-Domingue, 11 November 1792.

Folio, 2 pp. (single folded sheet). Manuscript on paper, bearing the oval ink stamp of the “Commission nationale civile de la partie française de Saint-Domingue – Au nom de la Nation” and signed by Léger-Félicité Sonthonax, together with multiple contemporary municipal signatures.

Administrative manuscript from the opening phase of the Haitian Revolution. The document certifies the service record and conduct of a certain Thomas, long employed in various branches of the colonial police at Saint-Domingue, and formally recommends him for appointment either as a surveillant or, failing that, to a post in the National Gendarmerie. It attests that Thomas had served for approximately seven years, including four as an inspector and three as an exempt, that he had conducted himself with honor and zeal, and that his large family had been sent to France to escape the calamities afflicting the colony. The mayors and municipal officers of Saint-Marc and Cap-Français endorse the request and recommend him to the national civil commissioners.

The document is issued under the authority of the Civil Commission sent to Saint-Domingue in 1792, at a moment when revolutionary authority was collapsing, racial and civil war had begun, and France’s colonial administration was being rapidly reorganized. Within months Sonthonax would arm formerly enslaved people and in August 1793 proclaim the emancipation that transformed the Atlantic world.

Condition: browned and age-toned; folds; scattered spotting and light staining; small splits at fold intersections; edges worn; legibility unaffected; stamp and signatures clear.