DECREE of the Conseil de Léogane, which puts a price on the Head of a nègre

THE Procureur-Général du Roi today represented to the Conseil that he has received word that the man named Martin, an enslaved nègre belonging to M. de Brach, Lieutenant de Roi in the Gouvernement of this Colony, who has been a fugitive from his enslaver’s house for a very long time, was daily committing thefts, brigandage, abduction and gathering of nègres likewise fugitives, and very often caused alarm on the plantations, which disturbed the public peace. To ensure tranquillity and prevent a greater evil, he judged it necessary to use every possible means to seize his person, dead or alive, the quickest means being to put a price on his head, for which he requested, etc. THE CONSEIL deliberated to put a price on the head of the said Martin. Consequently it enjoins all persons, of whatever quality and condition they may be, to run after the said Martin, to seize him or kill him.