LETTER from the Minister to the Administrators, permitting the transmigration of the settlers of Saint-Domingue to Cayenne with their nègres

Some settlers of the Leeward Islands have asked permission to take their nègres to Cayenne, where they wish to establish themselves. I reported this to the King, and His Majesty judged that this request, favorable in itself out of regard for liberty and property, was favorable also in its aim, since it appears useful to the progress of our plantations in America. It is reasonable indeed to grant some confidence to the undertaking of these colonists, who move only to extend to Cayenne their cultivation, too confined on their present holdings, or to turn into the means of establishment on the concessions they request the price of their lands, which they cannot work for want of Black people and which wealthier buyers will be able to develop. It is therefore His Majesty’s intention that you leave to all the colonists who wish to establish themselves at Cayenne the freedom to go there with their enslaved people.