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Description and Holding Information
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Dubroca, 1802 (2nd pr.), La vie de Toussaint-Louverture
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La vie de Toussaint-Louverture, Chef de Noirs Insurgés de Saint-Domingue; Suive de notes précieuses sur Saint-Domingue, sur plusiers personnages qui
ont joué un role dans la revolution de cette íle, et des premières operations militaires de general Leclerc: by Dubroca, Paris, 74p, Chez Dubroca &
Bonneville, An X, 1802, second printing. (Lacks TOC & index. An English translation of this text was published in London in the same year. It is offered
on this site as LLMC No. 31386. Also, for unknown reasons, the frontispiece in this 1802 French edition, a portrait of Toussaint Louverture, was not
captured correctly in the scanning. For those who may be interested, a “true scan” of that portrait is provided in a 1983 reprint of this book,
offered on this site as LLMC Title No. 31387.This text was first published during the secret imprisonment of Toussaint Louverture (T-L) by Napoleon at Fort
de Joux in the French Alps, well before his death in April 1803. That this work may have been an officially sponsored “hatchet job” could be inferred
from its detailed excuses for the Directory’s {i.e. Napoleon’s} previous role in paying T-L public honors, and from the fact that an English
translation was rushed into print to counter pro-T-L sentiment in England and the United States. French officialdom appears to have launched a preemptive
defense against possible outrage upon T-L’s death. The tone throughout is heavily racist, with emphasis upon T-L’s alleged cultural insufficiencies, inbred
brutality, and barbarous instincts. The existence of numerous testimonials from officials of several nations to his basic humanity and kindness is
attributed to cunning duplicity on the part of T-L in shaping his public image. All of his accomplishments are ascribed to the assistance of others.
Numerous instances are presented in which T-L is portrayed as rapacious, cruel and blood-thirsty. Which makes it somewhat ironic that, in seeking to show
that his main achievement, the feat that won for T-L the generalship of French forces in Saint Domingue, the expulsion of English invaders from the
colony, was secretly treasonous, Dubroca is reduced to the claim that in accepting the English surrender T-L acted far too chivalrously. The principal
underlying appeal of the text is to white audiences who, in an era of near universal slavery, lived in perpetual fear of similar slave rebellion in
their own countries. T-L himself is regularly described as “the Negro Chief,” “the ferocious African,” or finally “this perfidious African.” This
negative thrust is somewhat contradicted by the book’s original title, which styled T-L the “Chief of the French rebels.” But that possible oversight was
remedied in this second printing of 1802, when a revised title dubs him chef des noirs insurgés; this despite the fact that the frontispiece continues
to carry the honorific which Napoleon had earlier bestowed on T-L, Général en Chef à St. Domingue.” Dubroca, 1757 to ca.1835, was a prolific author,
who wrote several books on French colonial affairs during this same period. In the year, 1802, while he was writing this short but furious attack on
T-L, he was also authoring a sprawling, fawning, presumably “authorized,” biography of Napoleon entitled: Histoire de Bonaparte, premier consul, depuis
sa naissance jusqu’à la paix de Lunéville; Suivi de ses actions remarquables, responses et traits sublimes, avec les anecdotes relatives à ses
différentes campagnes, 410p, Paris, Barba, 1802.)
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Title:
La vie de Toussaint-Louverture, chef des noirs insurgés de Saint-Domingue : contenant son origine ... suivie de notes précieuses sur Saint-Domingue, sur plusieurs personages qui ont joué un rôle dans la révolution de cette île, et des premières opérations militaires du général Leclerc / par Dubroca.
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OCLC Number:
772264775
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Available Volumes
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| Name | Fiche Count | Online | Paper Backup |
| Volume 1 | | Yes | No |
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