Scope and arrangement
The bulk of the collection consists of the archives of the General Prosecutor's office for the city of Jérémie and encompasses registers and notarized acts from public notaries of Jérémie, historical letters and documents from the pre-independence era, records of the Foreign Relations Ministry from the late 1870s to 1950s, administrative records, governmental decrees and regulations, and newspapers. Records of the General Prosecutor's office and registers of the public notaries of the district and municipality of Jérémie document the administration of justice, trade, various social relations, and patterns of life under colonial rule and during the formative years after independence. Records consist primarily of correspondence between the General Prosecutor's office and the Civil Court of Judges in the district of Jérémie, financial reports, minutes of proceedings, police reports, and deeds of property. Historical documents from Toussaint Louverture, André Rigaud, Charles Belair, Charles Leclerc, and others. General correspondence, 1835-1957, including administrative correspondence of Lysius Félicité Salomon, Duke of Saint Louis de Sud and Finance Minister during the reign of Emperor Faustin Soulouque, 1847-1849; and diplomatic correspondence between General Francois Manigat, Haitian Ambassador to France and the Haitian Foreign Relations Minister, 1898; and letters of Toussaint Louverture. Government papers include Senate register for 1883-1884, financial records of the city of Jacmel, 1890-1891, and various documents from the Soulouque administration. Records of the Foreign Relations Ministry consist of letters, reports, and fact sheets dipatched from the Haitian legations in Washington, Santo Domingo, Paris, Berlin, and Brussels to the Ministry in Haiti, correspondence between foreign legations in Port-au-Prince and the Haitian Foreign Relations Ministry, presidential memoranda to the Foreign Relations Ministry, and ceremonial greetings from foreign heads of state to various Haitian presidents, 1870s-1930s. Also, governmental decrees and regulations, and administrative records consisting of certificates of diplomatic and military appointments and promotions. Printed matter includes copies of "Feuille du commerce de Port-au-Prince," "Le Phare, journal commercial, politique et literaire," and "Le Telegraphe," journals published in Haiti in the 1830s which provide a glimpse of the early economic life of the country. Additional printed material includes newspapers and circulars from the time of the United States occupation of Haiti, 1915-1925 and 1950.
The Kurt Fisher Haitian collection is arranged in five series:
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This series includes notable correspondence such as two autographed signed letters (A.L.S.) from Martial Besse to Andre Rigaud and one letter from Rigaud to the French agent Roume, one A.L.S. from Charles Belair to Dessalines (7 July 1802), as well as two A.L.S. from the French general Rochambeau and five A.L.S. to General Leclerc].
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The executive correspondence of Toussaint Louverture contains many noteworthy items, including: a 22 Jan. 1802 letter addressed to the San Domingo General Assembly, in which he reaffirms his loyalty to France, while accusing the "Expeditionary Army" of planning the reinstatement of slavery in the colony; 3 A.L.S. from Paul Louverture (Feb. 1802), Commander in Chief of the Ozama province, announcing the naval siege of that province by the French flotilla and one holograph copy of Napoleon's "Proclamation to the inhabitants of San Domingo"; 5 A.L.S. from Charles Belair (31 March 5 May 1802), reporting his evacuation of the city of Saint Marc and retreat to the neighboring hills and commenting on the unnecessarily inhuman treatment of the peasants by Dessalines, as well as the latter's arbitrary appropriation of large sections of his troops; and one A.L.S. from Charles Leclerc, General in Chief of the "Expeditionary Army" (5 May 1802), informing him of a peace treaty between France and Great Britain (Toussaint Louverture resigned the same day).
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Among the documents in this series can be found one excerpt from the Journal des Colonies entitled: "Report to the municipality on the slave insurrection of Limbe, Aug. 17 and 18," (1792); one anonymous report on Dessalines' "betrayal" of Toussaint Louverture; and one holograph document entitled "Secret memoir on the character of Toussaint Louverture, Dessalines and Charles Belair". The latter tells how to blackmail Toussaint by using his children, and subvert his generals by pledging to maintain them in their posts.