Secret History: or, The Horrors of St. Domingo and Laura

by Lenora Sansay, Michael J. Drexler (Editor)

Based on Leonora Sansay's eyewitness accounts of the final days of French rule in Saint Domingue (Haiti), Secret History is a vivid account of race warfare and domestic violence. Sansay's writing provocatively draws comparisons between Saint Domingue during the Haitian Revolution and the postrevolutionary United States, while fluidly combining qualities of the eighteenth-century epistolary novel, colonial travel writing, and political analysis. Laura, Sansay's second novel, features as its protagonist a beautiful impoverished orphan who throws herself headlong into a secret marriage with a young medical student. When her husband dies in a duel in an effort to protect his wife's reputation, Laura finds herself once more alone in the world. The republication of these works will contribute to a significant revision of thinking about early American literary history.

This Broadview edition offers a rich selection of contextual materials, including selections from periodical literature about Haiti, engravings, letters written by Sansay to her friend Aaron Burr, historical material related to the Burr trial for treason, and excerpts from literature referenced in the novels.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, School, Classics, Read For School, Historical, American

320 pages, Paperback

First published June 11, 2007

Reviews

[isabell ☮︎︎]

the micro/macro history aspect of this really reminded me of War and Peace in the sense that there are these enormous historical forces, told through the personal suffering of individuals.

dont get me wrong, there is A LOT of white victimhood here, which i found interesting in a complicated way. the european characters are suffering, but their suffering exists within the colonial world they are implicated in. i appreciated that tension, even when the book's colonial gaze felt romanticised or uncomfortable.

i especially loved the female perspective through Clara, the colonizer's wife. the domestic violence and lack of freedom felt painfully realistic. and the language of conquest! Clara “sighs for conquest” and later celebrates a conquest of her own. she colonizes men through desire, turning them into objects of possession, while remaining subjected to patriarchal power herself.

the structures of empire become structures of intimacy.

a fascinating book to think about, even if I didn't completely love reading it.

[Fenja]

Gab. Sikke noget kedelig kolonial litteratur.

[Esther]

Det er helt klart og meget selvfølgeligt at det er fra et vestligt perspektiv historien bliver fortalt - synet på slaveri er ikke kønt. Til gengæld synes jeg at den anekdotiske måde brevene er skrevet på giver plads til en individuel kvindelig fortælling.

Det er ikke kun grusomhederne som begivenhederne under den Haitianske revolution medfører der får plads. Enhver historisk begivenhed akkompagneres af en indskudt fortælling fra et ‘virkeligt’ (opdigtet) liv, og skildrer den måde hvorpå kvinder igennem historien har det endnu mere vanskeligt i krisetider.

Kan ikke finde en eneste gennemgående mand der er fremstillet med en snert af sympati, hvilket vel også er forfriskende for en tid med ‘store mænd’ (morderisk er måske mere passende) som Napoleon🤘🏼🤘🏼

[Lulu]

Whenever people talk in passing about The Secret History, I always think they mean the one by Sansay. They never do.

[genevieve]

eye-opening when it came to realizing these injustices, but the perspective was biased and as a whole affected how i went through this text. the survivalistic tendencies felt realistic and human, but her fear felt so detached, unbelievable, almost completely lacking sympathy. when you treat groups of humans poorly for ages, is it fair to be outraged when they strike back against you? or is it deserved?

[Kelly Tobin]

I’m not really sure how to rate this honestly. This book is so racist and speaks from a position of so much privilege that it reads like satire but i don’t think it actually is (or is it??) It’s interesting to read if looking at it as a unique interpretation of a seduction novel or for its depictions of femininity in the era but as an actual novel it’s pretty trash.

[khara rosebrook]

“Nobody loves her moderately. As soon as she is known she seizes on the soul…”

strangely saccharine for its unflinchingly brutal subject matter but i devoured it regardless. there’s some craaaaazy lore to this text! it should’ve really just been a long-winded love letter, but i suppose the test of time forbade that.

“Sometimes, when listening to him… I almost persuade myself that a man can be sincere.”

[Emma Kirstine]

Bogen handler virkelig meget om hvide mennesker med deres white people problems i forhold til at det skulle være kolonial litteratur og handle om den Haitianske revolution

[spoon]

Good for 19thC. I couldn't keep track fo characters but that's on me.

[Dusty]

I had never heard of Secret History, or Leonora Sansay, until this semester, when it appeared on not just one but two of my three graduate seminars' syllabuses. It's the short but certainly not simple story of a young American woman traveling with her sister (and her sister's choleric husband) in Saint-Domingue at the time of the Revolution. She tells her story in letters back home to Aaron Burr, of all people, and later to her sister (they become separated). For a book published in the first decade of the nineteenth century in a country (the United States) supposedly devoid of any worthwhile cultural production, Secret History holds up remarkably well -- as a travel narrative, as a progressive reflection on the unjust treatment of women in the European marriage market, and as a narrative about people caught in tumultuous personal and political relationships. Recommended.

[Andrew Pisano]

The introduction by Michael Drexler is invaluable. Sansay's contrasting of marriage/gender/social norms from one text to the other is quite fascinating. At times, in Laura, Sansay seems to get carried away with her sentimental stylizing, but redeems it with a rather speedy, albeit heavy-handed, conclusion.

[Giulia]

Brutto forte

[Roger Whitson]

Set during the Haitian Revolution, Sansay's brief epistolary novel SECRET HISTORY; OR, THE HORRORS OF ST. DOMINGO artfully puts into relief the many ambivalences of the revolutionary bourgeoisie during the period. I've read a critic recently who said that the three major revolutions had very different goals: the American Revolution sought self-determination; the French Revolution looked to a leveling of society in terms of class and gender; and the Haitian Revolution looked to extend these ideas into the realm of race. Of course, these categories don't always hold up, but the acceptance of racism in Anglo-American Enlightenment culture of the eighteenth century, along with the massacre of whites living in Haiti by Jean-Jacques Dessalines, helps to explain why the Americans were always at best ambivalent about the revolution. American slaveholders were particularly supportive of the French planters. Sansay was a client and possible lover of the American vice-president Aaron Burr, and this only adds historical relevance to the novel.

Everywhere in THE HORRORS OF ST. DOMINGO there are powerful contrasts between the main character Mary's opulent lifestyle as an English aristocrat, and the vast majority of Haitians who live in desperate poverty. We see her and her friend Clara waltzing in one scene, while exploring starving Haitian villages in another. It's questionable whether Sansay realizes these huge differences, but they are obvious enough to even the most cursory reading as to be easily incorporated into any student conversation. Moreover Clara's struggle to escape the violence of her husband, while fending off the amorous advances of the corrupt French general underscores how sexual violence intersects with slavery and colonialism. To be sure, there are places in the novel where the drama of Clara's sometimes too-typical eighteenth-century narrative obscures the broader story of the Revolution, and that is itself problematic. But Sansay delivers enough detail and describes the plight of the Haitians with such power that it is worth studying as a limited, although worthwhile, narrative delivered from the perspective of a white, British colonizer.

[Stephanie Hartley]

**2.5 stars**

I've read a lot of early US fiction, but not much non-fiction or epistolary fiction so this was a bit outside of my comfort zone. It's a series of letters written at the end of French rule in Haiti. I don't have masses to say about this because it really does what it says on the tin, and the edition I read didn't have the second novel 'Laura' in it.

I found this a very slow read, though interesting to read something in this style of letters. I think I struggle when the focus of a book is on what is happening rather than who is involved, and that's partly why non-fiction isn't really my bag.

[Birdie Stark]

valuable insofar as it served my understanding of the haitian revolution from a white woman's perspective. the introduction to this epistolary novel tells us that the work is meant to be addressed to aaron burr, the supposed uncle of our narrator. why did we need that??? not once was that even remotely relevant to the novel's contents, and it seemed particularly distasteful given sansay's ongoing affair with burr at the time of its publication. i can appreciate it being a product of its time though

[Emma Getz]

So much happened in this book but it was pretty fun

[Gail Harper]

The importance of this book transcends the epistolary nature. Sansay makes many social commentaries within a few pages that are still relevant today.

[Paige Hettinger]

i only read secret history for class, but this was shockingly really interesting and i was very engaged. the awakening vibes in many ways

[sam]

I definitely need to reread this, but it does feel very important and convoluted at the same time

[olivia]

(only read "Secret History")

[Cheyenne]

Had to read for class and while I found it interesting, I think I missed a lot of what was really going on. Might need to reread.

[Joel]

one of the dullest books i’ve ever read

[Mayra Kalaora]

YO this is so underrated … have to read in its context obvsly

[Sydney]

This book was like a little gossip column, which was kind of interesting. Reading books for class just doesn't hit the same.

[Ilayda]

evet biraz ırkcı bi kitap.. ama icerisindeki hikayeler o kadar ilginc ki okurken ne nefret edebildim ne de bayildim. ama genel olarak guzel bence

[Meredith]

Was confused almost the whole time. In-class discussions were helpful, but I did not find the book enjoyable at all. Had to force myself to read it.

[S]

I thought it was a true story because I didn't pay attention to the intro

[Emma]

I only read the first half of this collection for class but the story I did read was fine and interesting.

[Preston Scott Blakeley]

Far from a favorite but helpful when tracking literary intersections between colonialism and Caribbean ecocriticism.

[Emma Gärtner]

Only really interesting in its historical context.