In 1808, Leonora Sansay (born Mary Hassal) anonymously published an epistolary romance which many literary critics and historians take to have been at least partially inspired by the time the author spent in Saint-Domingue during the latter years of the Leclerc-Rochambeau expedition (1801–03), Secret History; or the Horrors of Santo-Domingo in a series of letters, written by a Lady at Cape François to Colonel Burr, Late Vice President of the United States, Principally during the Command of Rochambeau. Historian Tessie Liu writes that the ‘bits of complex life’ described in Secret History, namely the author's affair with U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr, alluded to in the novel's title, ‘suggest that Secret History is largely autobiographical’ (394). Elizabeth Maddock Dillon, for her part, points out that ‘[l]ike Mary's fictional sister, Clara, Sansay was married to a French colonial from Saint Domingue, Louis Sansay,’ concluding that because the names Clara and Mary are used in Secret History and were two of the names Sansay used, ‘the novel is loosely based on Leonora Sansay's experience in Saint-Domingue during the years 1802–03’ (2007, 77–78). In addition, Colin (Joan) Dayan has convincingly argued that the ‘source’ for Sansay's epistolary ‘book of horrors’ was actually a letter Sansay penned to Burr on May 6, 1803, only a year after she had arrived in Saint-Domingue with her husband (1995, 167).