Secret History; or, the Horrors of St. Domingo: In a Series of Letters, Written by a Lady at Cape Francois, to Colonel Burr, Late Vice-President of the United States, Principally During the Command of General RochambeuSansay, Leonora
History
Secret History; or, the Horrors of St. Domingo: In a Series of Letters, Written by a Lady at Cape Francois, to Colonel Burr, Late Vice-President of the United States, Principally During the Command of General Rochambeu
Sansay, Leonora
Haiti -- History -- Revolution, 1791-1804; Haiti -- Social life and customs
_St. Jago de Cuba._
General Rochambeau, after having made a shameful capitulation with the
negroes, has evacuated the Cape. He presented his superb horses to
Dessalines, and then embarked with his suite, and all the inhabitants
who chose to follow him, intending to fight his way through the British
ships. They were, however, soon overpowered and taken. The English
admiral would not admit the general in chief into his presence. He has
been sent to Jamaica, from whence he will be transported to England.
Many of the inhabitants of the Cape have arrived here, after having
lost every thing they possessed. Numbers have remained. After the
articles of capitulation were signed three days were allowed for the
evacuation, during which the negroes entered the town, and were so
civil and treated the inhabitants with so much kindness and respect,
that many who had embarked their effects, allured by the prospect
of making a fortune rapidly, paid great sums to have them relanded,
supposing they would be protected as they had been in the time of
Toussaint. But in less than a week they found that they had flattered
themselves with false hopes. A proclamation was issued by Dessalines,
in which every white man was declared an enemy of the _indigenes_,
as they call themselves, and their colour alone deemed sufficient to
make them hated and to devote them to destruction. The author of this
eloquent production, a white man, became himself the first sacrifice.
The destined victims were assembled in a public square, where they were
slaughtered by the negroes with the most unexampled cruelty. One brave
man, who had often distinguished himself in the defence of the Cape,
and who had been weak enough to stay in it, seized with desperate fury
the sword of one of the negroes, and killing several, at length fell,
overpowered by numbers. A few were preserved from this day's massacre
by their slaves. Some were concealed by the American merchants, though
it was very dangerous to venture on such benevolent actions. One vessel
was searched, and several inhabitants being found on board, they were
taken and hanged. The mate of the vessel, though an American, shared
their fate. The captain saved himself by declaring that he was ignorant
of their being on board. Major B----, whom I have so often mentioned,
had also the folly to stay. One of his slaves concealed him on the day
of the massacre, and, shut up in a hogshead, he was put on board an
American vessel. After many perilous adventures he has arrived here,
and relates scenes which cannot be thought of without horror.
The women have not yet been killed; but they are exposed to every kind
of insult, are driven from their houses, imprisoned, sent to work on
the public roads; in fine, nothing can be imagined more dreadful than
their situation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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