Usually called
Abbe, historian; born in St. Geniez,
France, April 12, 1713.
His philosophic and political history of the two
Indies appeared in
Paris in 1770.
It was an indictment of royalty, while it praised the people of the
United States of America as models of heroism such as antiquity boasted of, and spoke of
New England in particular as a land that knew how to be happy “without kings and without
[
382]
priests.”
He spoke of philosophy as wishing to see “all peoples happy,” and said, “If the love of justice had decided the Court of Versailles to the alliance of a monarchy with a people defending its liberty, the first article of its treaty with the
United States should have been that all oppressed peoples have the right to rise against their oppressors.”
Raynal was indicted, and fled through
Brussels to
Holland, leaving his books to be burned by the common hangman.
He subsequently came to the
United States.
His book found a welcome in many a library in
France, for the younger men, even among the nobility, shared its lofty sentiments, and it became a text-book of the early French revolutionists.
He died in
Paris, France, March 6, 1793.
