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An Inquiry into the causes of the Insurrection of the Negroes in the island of St. Domingo, to which are added, observations of M. Garran-Coulon on the same subject, read in his absence by M. Guadet, before the National Assembly, 29th Feb. 1792

Friends House Library, London. British Library. Bibliothèque Nationale de France

Saint Domingue Slave Revolution Debate Equality France National Assembly Abolition Insurrection

This abolitionist pamphlet is a response to the West Indian pro-slave trade lobby which in 1791 used the outbreak of revolution among the slaves in the French colony of Saint Domingue (Haiti) to inspire fear in Britain of the consequences that might result from abolition. The pamphlet argues that abolitionism cannot be blamed for the revolutionary violence in St. Domingue, but rather that the French should have fully applied the principle of universal rights, and undertaken slave reforms.

Appendix: English translation of Jean-Philippe Garran de Coulon, Opinion de J-Ph. Garran,... sur les causes et les remèdes des désastres des colonies, lue à la séance du 29 février 1792 (Paris: Impr. Nationale).