Edmond de Saint-Léger

Edmond de Saint-Léger - French Commissioner who arrived in Saint-Domingue on November 29, 1791 (with Frédéric de Mirbeck and Roume). His previous post had been Tobago, "where he was a doctor and an interpreter of English." (Parkinson, p. 60) He must have had great courage, for he diffused a potentially explosive situation at the St. Michel plantation when he walked calmly into the middle of a crowd of rebels and greeted  Jean François "with respect.  He spoke graciously and quietly to all the rebels and with his Irish charm [...] placated them.  Jean François showed an emotional reaction after the scene of unpleasantness and responded to such warm and unprecedented behaviour by falling on one knee before him." (Parkinson, p. 63)

Alarmed about the growing counter-revolution, Saint-Léger fled Saint-Domingue for France after a talk with the mulatto leader Pierre Pinchinat. (James p. 110) Pinchinat had used the royalist threat to gain momentum for the mulatto cause. Commissioner Roume, who had arrived with Saint-Léger in 1791, was scheduled to leave as well, but postponed his departure in order to deter the royalists (Roume was expelled later by Toussaint Louverture).