Published by [Dufour de Rians], [Cap-Francais], 1796
First Edition Signed
Single sheet, folio (ca. 32 × 19,5 cm). Local printing, combining printed form and manuscript completions in brown ink in secretary hand, signed by Leblanc. (illustrator). Single sheet, folio (ca. 32 × 19,5 cm). Local printing, combining printed form and manuscript completions in brown ink in secretary hand, signed by Leblanc. Rare locally printed directive from Cap-Français, signed by Commissioner Leblanc shortly after his arrival, appointing the director of the colony's principal military hospital during the Haitian Revolution. This rare directive was issued at Cap-Français by Georges-Pierre Leblanc, commissioner of the French Directory, during one of the most turbulent phases of the Haitian Revolution. It appoints Citizen Moreau as directeur en chef de l'hôpital militaire of Cap-Français, instructing him to assume his duties without delay and to work with Citizen Mailliard (Maillard or Maillart), identified as commissaire des guerres, to designate a senior officer responsible for supervising the hospital's nursing staff, subject to the Commission's approval. The document is printed on a locally produced template with manuscript completions, almost certainly the work of Dufour de Rians, the leading printer of Cap-Français from the mid-1770s onward. Dufour was responsible for much of the colony's official output, including proclamations and administrative decrees. (Cabon 1939; Menier 1949) Very few of his Revolutionary-era imprints survive, most having been destroyed during the catastrophic burning of Cap-Français in 1793 and subsequent warfare. This example is especially remarkable for bearing the autograph signature of Commissioner Georges-Pierre Leblanc, whose brief tenure in Saint-Domingue left almost no surviving documents. Leblanc was one of five commissioners dispatched by the Directory in May 1796 to reestablish French control over the colony, joining Léger Félicité Sonthonax, Julien Raimond, Marc-Antoine Alexis Giraud, and Philippe-Rose Roume de Saint-Laurent. His time in Saint-Domingue was brief: arriving on 11 May 1796, he fell seriously ill by early January 1797 and left for France, but died during the return voyage. Because Leblanc remained in the colony for less than a year, signed documents from his administration are exceptionally rare, and this directiveissued only two weeks after his arrivalis among the earliest known examples of his official acts. The identities of the other officials named here are less certain but provide context for the colony's medical administration. A notice in Généalogie et Histoire de la Caraďbe, Bulletin 23 (Janvier 1991), records a Moreau who served as chirurgien-major in Port-au-Prince, arriving in Saint-Domingue in 1748 and returning to France in 1774. During his career, he acted as entrepreneur général des hôpitaux royaux et militaires for the southern and western parts of the colony. By 1796, this individual would have been too old to remain active, but it is possible that the Moreau named in this directive was a younger relative, perhaps a son or nephew, continuing the family's role in colonial hospital administration. The War Commissioner named as Mailliard also appears to have been a key figure in the colony's military structure. A later document dated 23 July 1803 identifies a Maillard as chef de l'état-major de la division du Nord, or chief of staff of the Northern Division (FranceArchives, DE/2012/PA/47/9). While it is not certain that this is the same individual, the connection suggests a career military administrator whose authority spanned the Revolutionary government and the later Napoleonic campaigns. The directive provides a rare surviving example of the practical workings of colonial administration in Saint-Domingue during the Haitian Revolution. Produced locally at Cap-Français, most likely by Dufour de Rians, and signed by Commissioner Leblanc only weeks after his arrival, it reflects the efforts of the Directory to maintain institutional structures in the face of war, epidemic disease, and political unrest. Few such documents survived the destruction of Cap-Français and the upheavals of the following years, making this a scarce.
Seller: Brainerd Phillipson Rare Books, Holliston, MA, U.S.A.
Association Member: SNEAB
Signed
These are left-over perforated folio sheets from the printing of the limited edition of Six Stories: including pages 190 to 195. Paginated, but not numbered on the limitation page. But signed by Stephen King on the last page with the Eleven hundred printing statement. Unusual. Out of series: Eleven hundred copies of Six Stories were printed by the Stinehour Press.This is number/ Stephen King.