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Voyage aux îles de Trinidad, de Tabago, de la Marguerite, et dans diverses parties de Vénézuéla, dans l'Amérique méridionale

A statistical, commercial, and political description of Venezuela, Trinidad, Margarita, and Tobago (London: G. and W. B. Whittaker, 1820). English. Reise nach den Inseln Trinidad, Tabago und Margaretha so wie in verschiedene Theile von Venezuela in Süd-America (Weimar: 1816). German.

Bibliothèque Nationale de France. British Library.

Travels Trinidad Tobago Caracas Marguerite Venezuela South America Slavery Plantations Trade

This traval narrative describes Dauxion Lavaysse's travels in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, in South America, Tobago and Trinidad, which he calls "the meeting-point of speculators and adventurers of all types from the old and new worlds" (xv). The author, who had been a planter in Trinidad, describes the existing colonial slave system as "a monstrosity" (271), but he is also very complementary of certain plantations, run in a "patriarchial manner" and "with great humanity" (278). Dauxion Lavaysse argues for the gradual transformation of slavery into a new kind of regulated feudalism in the Americas, which would, according to him, bring about the end of slave trading.

Two volumes. Printed by J. G. Dentu (Paris). Contains detailed maps of the islands of Trinidad, Tobago and Marguerite, accounts of the history and geography of the islands and of Venezuela, and a comparative survey of the trade of the French, Dutch, British and Spanish colonies in the Americas. Cited in the British abolitionist pamphlet: All nations are of one blood.