The Coffee Planter of Saint Domingo

A planter's procedural manual for running a coffee estate in Saint-Domingue, published in 1798 — after revolution had already shattered the old order — as an attempt to preserve plantation knowledge as if the world that produced it were still recoverable. Rich on estate layout, the authority of the commandeur, provision grounds, the hospital, cases-nègres, and the temporal order of plantation labor, the text reveals planter mentality from the inside: naturalizing mastery, recasting coercion as good management, and describing slavery as proper hierarchy undone by the French Revolution.