Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Le Romain
Jean -Baptiste- Pierre Le Romain Romain or (* unknown, † unknown) was a French engineer. As one of the contributors to the Encyclopédie he wrote almost 70 articles on the subject of the West Indies.
Romain was a nobleman ( écuyer ). In 1734 he made a map of the Caribbean island of Martinique, where he lived at that time. Six years later he was appointed auxiliary engineering ( sous- Ingénieur ) and ordered to Grenada, to improve the fortifications of the island. In a letter written in 1742 to his superiors speak positively about Romains services, indicating also that he was born unbegütert ( " né sans biens " ) and suffer from lack of money. In a letter of reply from Versailles Romain was then awarded a bonus. Around the year 1748 he was promoted to senior engineer of Grenada.
Kafker assumes Le Romain had except his contributions to the Encyclopédie published nothing written. Le Romain was recruited even before the appearance of the first volume in 1751 as a contributor and has written nearly 70 articles for Volumes 3 to 16 From the perspective of the publisher could apply his recruitment for the encyclopedia project as a stroke of luck - referring Le Romain yes all knowledge of the West Indies from my own experience.
More than half of his contributions to the Encyclopédie consist of short articles about plants, animals, minerals, and the geography of the West Indies. In a smaller number of articles to Le Romain sets deals in detail with the production of agricultural products such as sugar and indigo. Those that are devoted to the customs and living conditions of the indigenous people and African slaves, are written from Euro -centric perspective. Article as Sucrerie (German sugar plantation ) and Nègres consideres esclaves comme dans les colonies de l' Amerique (Eng. Negro slaves in the American colonies ) have the same contemporary prejudices such as the article Nègres (Eng. Negro ) his colleague Jean Henri Samuel Formey. A brutal treatment of African slaves rejects Le Romain, however, from legal, moral and economic reasons.
On October 29, 1756 Le Romain held in Paris, where he performed together with other Encyclopaedists as witness the marriage of Paul Henri Thiry d' Holbach and Charlotte -Suzanne Daine. Four years later, he lived and was still working on Grenada. After the conquest of the island by the British in 1762, Le Romain is probably returned to France, and then lose track of him.