Read Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution Online
Authors: Laurent Dubois
were calling for freedom for all slaves. The enemy, lamented one planter,
was “too numerous” and “their means of defense too great” for them to be
defeated. There was, in any case, no victory to be had. “Whichever way
things turn out, our ruin is total. If we do not defeat and destroy the rebel slaves, we will all end up being slaughtered by these monsters, and by destroying them we destroy our fortunes. For it is in these slaves that our for-d e f i a n c e
141
tunes exist.” Some whites sympathized with the rebels. In early 1793 one
resident of the south who had fought the insurgents there wrote to his
mother wondering: “Why is the desire to be free seen as a crime? . . . While
all of Europe resounds with the cries of liberty and equality, Saint-
Domingue rings with the voices of innumerable victims whom one slaugh-
ters without pity and who more than anyone have the right to revolt against
the hand that crushes them. What a century! What a philosophy!” Others
saw hope only in exile. Many, however, were determined to fight, such as
the planter who announced to “vile slaves” and “rebels” who had killed
many of his friends: “I will follow them coldbloodedly into the grave, and I
swear that you will see all my blood flow before I consent to your freedom,
because your slavery, my fortune, and my happiness are inseparable.” In
November 1792 another stated clearly an opinion that would be reiterated
by other planters in the next months: “We did not fetch half a million sav-
age slaves off the coast of Africa to bring them to the colony as French citizens.” He was wrong. Within the year the “savage slaves” he saw as nothing
but property would be just that: citizens.23
On September 17, 1792, the ship
America
arrived in the port of Le Cap.
On board were the three commissioners sent by the National Assembly to
govern Saint-Domingue: Léger Félicité Sonthonax, Etienne Polverel, and
Jean Antoine Ailhaud. Sonthonax and Polverel (having been abandoned by
Ailhaud soon after their arrival) would oversee a dramatic transformation
in the colony. Both had spoken out against slavery in previous years and
were bearers of a radical republicanism that was increasingly taking hold in
France. Their actions in Saint-Domingue would show a remarkable cour-
age and commitment to those radical ideals. But the transformation they
oversaw in the colony was determined less by what they brought from Eu-
rope than by their encounter with the power and political vision of the
slave insurgents who had begun their war for freedom in 1791.24
It was the first time that either man had set foot in Saint-Domingue.
Sonthonax came from a provincial family, wealthy though not aristocratic,
and in the 1780s had studied law at the University of Dijon. He then
moved to Paris, where he worked—as Moreau de St. Méry had a few years
before him—as a lawyer at the Paris Parlement. Polverel also came from
the provinces, from an aristocratic family, and was also trained in law. He
was a freemason, and in the decades before the Revolution was a member
of a Bordeaux lodge whose members included several free-coloreds from
142
av e n g e r s o f t h e n e w w o r l d
Saint-Domingue. Although neither joined the Société des Amis des Noirs,
they were familiar with the antislavery thought of the Enlightenment. Af-
ter 1789 both wrote for some of the new newspapers that sprang up to
chronicle and propel the French Revolution. In 1789 Polverel wrote that
“nature has made men for liberty, for equality, and for society. No man was
given by nature the right to command other men or to sell them.” The
next year Sonthonax penned a remarkable prophesy in the newspaper
Révolutions de Paris:
“Yes, we dare to predict with confidence that the day will come—and the day is not too far off—when you will see a curly-haired
African, relying only on his virtue and good sense, coming to participate in
the legislative process in the midst of our national assemblies.”25
It was their encounter with the prominent abolitionist Jacques Brissot
de Warville that set them on their road to Saint-Domingue. Brissot acted
as a patron to both Sonthonax and Polverel in the Paris Jacobin Club,
where the two men gained experience dealing with colonial matters. In
1791 Polverel led a move to expel several members of the Club Massiac
from the Jacobin Club, asserting through his actions that there was no
place for proslavery views in his revolution. The next year Sonthonax sat
on a committee that issued a letter on behalf of the Jacobin Club support-
ing the May 15, 1791, decree granting political rights to some free-colored
men.26
When, in March and April 1792, Brissot and his allies gained control
over colonial policy and pushed through the April 4 decree granting politi-
cal rights to all free-coloreds, they turned to Sonthonax and Polverel. The
task of applying this decree in the colonies, as Brissot well knew, would
be a difficult one, and would require more firmness and ruthlessness than
the previous metropolitan representatives in Saint-Domingue had mus-
tered. Confident in their principles, Brissot supported the candidacy
of Sonthonax and Polverel to the position of commissioners for Saint-
Domingue. (He also supported the candidacy of Julien Raimond, but the
planters in the National Assembly successfully blocked this nomination.)
So it was that two provincial lawyers turned revolutionary journalists, nei-
ther of whom had any experience in the Caribbean, were handed the fate
of what had until recently been the most profitable colony in the world.27
Sonthonax and Polverel left the French port of Rochefort in late July
1792. According to their orders from the government, the commissioners
had the power to suspend or dissolve the existing colonial assemblies and
to take “all measures necessary” to apply the April 4 decree. They were ac-
d e f i a n c e
143
companied by 6,000 troops and a printing press. Also on board was the new
governor-general of Saint-Domingue, Desparbès, who was supposed to
take control of military matters in the colony. As had often been the case in the Old Regime, the division of power created problems. The commissioners and governor clashed as they crossed the Atlantic, and within a few
months of their arrival in Saint-Domingue Sonthonax and Polverel de-
posed Desparbès.28
Predictably, the appointment of Sonthonax and Polverel was contested
by the planters in Paris. Unable to stop the departure of the new commis-
sioners, the planters did what they could to make their landing difficult.
One planter wrote in colorfully alarmist terms to the Colonial Assembly
about “secret” plans they were carrying from the National Assembly for the
“general emancipation” of the slaves. Their convoy, he claimed, was carry-
ing 20,000 rifles with which to arm the slaves, who, once they had been
freed, were to be turned against all “the foreign colonies” in order to carry
“revolt, and then independence, throughout the New World.” The com-
missioners he added, loved only the blacks and would attack all the whites
and free-coloreds “without distinction.” He called on the people of Saint-
Domingue to reject the “those tigers thirsty for blood” and to suffocate
their “barbarous projects.”29
On their arrival in Saint-Domingue the commissioners did what they
could to dispel such fears, announcing clearly that they had come to grant
political rights to free-coloreds in order to salvage slavery, not destroy
it. Sonthonax declared that the colonial assemblies were the only bodies
with “the right to rule on the lot of the slaves” and that slavery was “necessary to the cultivation and prosperity of the colonies.” It was neither his nor the National Assembly’s intention to attack the rights of the planters in this regard. (Several months later, in a private letter to Brissot, Sonthonax
noted his opposition to any sudden emancipation, which would “undoubt-
edly lead to the massacre of all the whites.”) The commissioners also
made clear, however, that they would no longer tolerate racial prejudice.
“Henceforth,” announced Sonthonax, “we recognize only two classes of
men in the French part of Saint Domingue: free men without any distinc-
tion of color, and slaves.” They were ready to use the extensive powers they
had been granted to confront any “defiance” by the colony’s residents.30
There was enough defiance to go around. An increasing number of
white planters, wary of the radicalization of the Revolution, were joining
the royalist opposition that existed throughout France. They shared with it
144
av e n g e r s o f t h e n e w w o r l d
many general concerns, but they also had a particular worry: many be-
lieved that “having proclaimed equality” the French National Convention
would soon “proclaim general emancipation.” Rejecting republicanism and
embracing the white flag of the royalists would not only strike a blow for
the king but might also save slavery in the colony. Planters with royalist
sympathies could look to the examples of Martinique and Guadeloupe,
where in late 1792 white planters had successfully expelled Republican ad-
ministrators.31
Sonthonax and Polverel might have expected to find a supportive coun-
terweight to the royalists among poorer, pro-Republican whites. Some
residents did support their regime: “Things are better now that the com-
missioners are here,” one would write in mid-1793. But many who were
partisans of revolutionary change tended to support autonomy for Saint-
Domingue, and were often as hostile to the threat of a “tyrannical” metro-
politan authority as planters were. Furthermore, despite the various
official attempts to encourage cooperation between whites and free-
coloreds, racial conflict continued to polarize the colony. Just before the
commissioners arrived, fighting between whites and free-coloreds in Le
Cap had left several dead. And wealthy planters such as de Jumecourt and
the marquis de Rouvray, who had led the move for reconciliation with free-
coloreds, were already firmly anti-Republican, and indeed would soon turn
to enemy powers. As the commissioners quickly came to understand, they
were to find little support anywhere among the white population.32
In October 1792 startling news arrived in the colony: an August uprising
in Paris had led to the suspension of the king by the National Assembly. A
new assembly, based on universal manhood suffrage, was to be elected: the
National Convention. France had become a republic. Many were violently
opposed to this change, both inside and outside France. For the more radi-
cal leaders of the Revolution, notably those concentrated in the Jacobin
Club, it was vital to defend the fledgling republic by any means necessary.
With enemies rallying at the borders—the threat of war with all the kings
of Europe was looming on the horizon—internal dissent was branded as
treason and repressed with increasing violence. Power was increasingly
concentrated in the hands of a few powerful leaders in the National Con-
vention’s committees, such as the Committee of Public Safety. Sonthonax
and Polverel received expanded powers: they could suspend all adminis-
trators and officers who were disloyal enough to oppose them.33
Over the next months the two commissioners eliminated most of their
d e f i a n c e
145
enemies and consolidated their political power. Having expelled
Desparbès, they replaced him with General Donatien Marie Joseph de
Rochambeau, who had been sent to Martinique as the new governor but,
because of the royalist takeover there, had been forced to continue on to
Saint-Domingue. The commissioners disbanded all existing assemblies in
the colony, including the Colonial Assembly, announcing they would be re-
placed with new ones elected by both whites and free-coloreds. In fact,
though, there were not to be new elections in Saint-Domingue—not yet.
Instead, Sonthonax and Polverel replaced the assembly with an “Interme-
diary Commission.” Six of its members were chosen by the outgoing Colo-
nial Assembly, who selected six whites. The other six were to be chosen
by the commissioners, who selected six free men of color, including Pierre
Pinchinat. The racially integrated commission—the first of its kind in
the colony—was a powerful symbol of what the commissioners hoped to
achieve. But it had little power—or will—to oppose the Republican com-
missioners who had formed it.34
In late October the three commissioners split up, with Polverel and
Ailhaud leaving to assume governance in the west and south. Ailhaud took
advantage of the move to escape from Saint-Domingue, leaving Polverel
in charge of both regions. Sonthonax, more strident and combative than
Polverel, was soon embroiled in conflict in Le Cap. When a group of
whites broke into a prison and massacred whites and slave insurgents
locked up there, he blamed the attack on a political group in Le Cap and
disbanded it. When Polverel criticized his actions, Sonthonax retorted:
“You accuse me of having violated in this the rights of man and citizen, as