The Gabriel-Marie-Théodore-Joseph d'Hédouville Collection is made up of 17 incoming and outgoing letters, drafts, and documents pertinent to d'Hédouville's time as French commissioner to Saint-Domingue. Dating between January 26 and December 18, 1798, d'Hédouville communicated with Governor-General Toussaint Louverture, André Rigaud, Spanish Governor of Santo Domingo Joaquín García, and others. The manuscripts pertain to military, naval, and political affairs in Revolutionary Haiti; a still stolen from physician "Citoyen Ferrié" and spirited away to Santo Domingo; and French patriots in exile in Guadeloupe.
Please see the box and folder listing below for details about each item in the collection.
Gabriel-Marie-Théodore-Joseph d'Hédouville was a French Royalist who gained recognition for his contributions at La Vendée in the War of the First Coalition. During the Haitian Revolution, in 1798, d'Hédouville served as French commissioner to St. Domingue, with goals of defending and restoring rights of white planters, restarting sugar production, and bolstering French influence in the colony/country. Part of his efforts included working with Governor-General Toussaint Louverture and André Rigaud to reduce the British foothold on the island, while surreptitiously influencing disharmony between the two men. In the summer of 1798, Rigaud maintained administrative and military control of the southern province of St. Domingue and worked cautiously with Louverture. At the same time, the British attempted to weaken France's relationship with Toussaint by engaging the latter and encouraging him to reject d'Hedouville's influence. Indeed, Toussaint Louverture made diplomatic arrangements with the British and the Americans (who were then in a Quasi-War with France), rejected French laws pertinent to the presence of English-allied planters on French colonial soil, and pushed d'Hedouville to leave St. Domingue. After less than a year's service, d'Hedouville departed St. Domingue in October 1798.
Although d'Hedouville recognized his failure to implement French goals in St. Domingue, he continued to be respected in the French government. Napoleon Bonaparte appointed him ambassador to Russia in 1801. At the restoration of Bourbon powers, he became a French peer and then died in 1825.
