Feb 26, 2009 - Sale 2171

Sale 2171 - Lot 240

Price Realized: $ 2,640
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
LETTER FROM LECLERC ON TOUSSAINT (HAITI.) [L'OUVERTURE, TOUSSAINT] LECLERC, CHARLES VICTOR EMMANUEL. Autograph Letter Signed from General Le Clerc to General Desforneaux regarding Toussaint L'Ouverture. 4to, one sheet on Armee de Saint-Domingue stationery, 19 March, 1802; paper toned; creased where folded; thin strip of modern paper across the reverse, where removed from an album; small remnant of what appears to be part of a piece of currency in the lower blank portion of the page. Headquarters of St. Marc, 1802

Additional Details

a letter of great historical significance from General Charles Victor Emmanuel Leclerc (1772-1803) the commander in chief of the French expeditionary force sent to capture Toussaint L''Ouverture and re-establish slavery on the island Haiti (Saint Domingue). Leclerc writes to general Desforneaux regarding the pursuit of Toussaint: "Toussaint, after being beaten by you has withdrawn to the Plaine de Cap. You have a small force in front of you, Citizen General. Push on toward the Marmelade to locate them. Be ready to move there in ten days if I give you the order. Further, if you learn that General Boyer is tied down near the Cap, you must move to his support. You note, Citizen General, that when I left you at Plaissance, and in this area, it was not for you to be in the rear." Leclerc arranged to have Toussaint come to him under a flag of peace to discuss a solution to the conflict on the island. Instead, Leclerc had Toussaint arrested. He was then sent to France and from there to a prison in the French Alps where he died on April 8, 1803. In a strange example of "poetic justice," General Leclerc himself died of yellow fever on the island of Saint Domingue in November of 1803. The General Boyer to whom Leclerc refers in his letter was one of the four generals who led the original revolt against France. He was become Haiti''s fourth leader, following Dessalines and Christophe.