Administration municipale du Port-Républicain; François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture (c. 1743–1803).

Contemporary official manuscript copy of a report addressed to Toussaint Louverture, General-in-Chief of the Army of Saint-Domingue, concerning suspected arson and a destructive urban fire.

Port-Républicain [Port-au-Prince], 14–15 Messidor, Year VI (2–3 July 1798).

One large folio sheet (36 x 23 cm), written on both sides in brown ink in a French administrative hand; 2 pp.

               A remarkable municipal report addressed directly to Toussaint Louverture at a decisive moment in the Haitian Revolution. The opening states explicitly that the municipality is transmitting the information requested by Louverture concerning “the fire of last night” in the colony’s capital Port-Républicain [Port-au-Prince]. It supplies copies of two witness statements, identifies the affected city block on the plan of 1794, and lists the numbers and owners of the damaged buildings.

The enclosed statements describe an apparent attempt to set fire to the home of the surgeon Guignon and a major blaze later that night in Émérian’s bakery. The municipality records the affected properties in block no. 70 of the 1794 city plan, identifying their owners and noting the destruction of one building and the partial demolition of another to prevent the fire from spreading. The report is signed in copy by the municipal president. The accompanying extracts from the municipal minutes are certified by Duboys, chief secretary. A final certification is dated at Port-Républicain on 15 Messidor, Year VI.

The manuscript was produced only weeks after the British evacuation of Port-au-Prince and Louverture’s entry into the city. Although he remained formally a general in the service of the French Republic, Louverture had become the colony’s dominant military and political authority. The municipal administration’s response to his personal request offers striking material evidence of the transformation of colonial power: an institution created under a slave regime now reported directly to a Black commander-in-chief who had himself been born enslaved. At the same time, the document is an unusually detailed primary source for everyday urban life during the Revolution.

Condition: several old folds and creases; margins frayed and chipped, with small losses principally at the upper and lower edges and minor loss to a few letters; some staining and show-through from the reverse. Despite these defects, the manuscript remains substantially complete and clearly legible.