Secret History; or, The Horrors of St. Domingo

What it is

This is a book of letters written by American author Leonora Sansay, published in Philadelphia in 1808. Framed as letters from a lady in Cap-Français to Colonel Burr, it describes events in Saint-Domingue (Haiti) during the command of General Rochambeau, during the war of 1802-03. Copies are held by the Library of Congress and the American Antiquarian Society.

Why it matters

Dessalines was a leading military commander during this war, which led to Haitian independence. Sansay's account, written by a foreign woman living through the conflict, captures the fear that Dessalines and the revolutionary forces inspired among French colonists, offering an outsider's view of the revolution's violence and upheaval.

Look closer

• Whose perspective does this book represent, and how might that shape its description of events?
• Why might a colonist's letters describe Dessalines differently than Haitian sources would?
• What does the fear described in this book tell us about the stakes of the revolution?