The Colonial System Unveiled
- The author defines the colonial system as the domination of whites and the massacre or slavery of blacks.
- He writes that since the start of the slave trade twenty million Africans were taken from the continent and barely two million remain in America.
- The work recounts the extermination of the indigenous people of the island by the Spanish conquest.
- He argues that Haiti's king is the only black sovereign able to plead the cause of oppressed Africans before the sovereigns of Europe.
- Letters of Henry Christophe, certified as true to the originals, close the volume.
The title page has the epigraph that the colonial system is the domination of the whites, the massacre or the slavery of the blacks, and the dedication to the king says the author wrote the work to serve his fellow citizens and to plead the cause of oppressed brothers before the sovereigns of Europe. The introduction places the book in the context of the peace signed in Europe in 1814 and the hope for a salutary change for humanity. The body recounts the destruction of the indigenous population of the island by the Spanish, the slave trade, and the treatment of enslaved Africans and their descendants by the planters.
It states that twenty million Africans had been taken from the continent since the start of the trade and that barely two million remained in America. The book ends with letters of Henry Christophe certified as true copies of originals in the state archives, countersigned by the Count of Limonade.
How to cite
Baron de Vastey, 1814, The Colonial System Unveiled, https://archive.org/details/manifesteduroi04liait
- Rights holder
- Baron de Vastey