An Account of Some of the Principal Slave Insurrections, and Others, Which Have Occurred, or Been A | Page 9

of
the former had done among the whites; and hostilities were renewed on
both sides.
As soon as these events became known in France, the Conventional
Assembly, which had then succeeded the Legislature, seeing no hope of
reconciliation on either side, knew not what other course to take than to
do justice, whatever the consequences might be. They resolved
accordingly, in the month of April, that the decree of 1791, which had
been first made and reversed by the preceding Assembly, should be
made good; thus restoring to the people of color the privileges which
had been voted to them; and they appointed Santhonax, Polverel, and
another to repair as Commissioners to St. Domingo, with a large body
of troops, in order to enforce the decree, and to keep the peace.
In the year 1793, the same division and bloodshed continuing,
notwithstanding the arrival of the commissioners, a very trivial matter,
a quarrel between a mulatto and a white man, (an officer in the French
marines,) gave rise to new disasters. The quarrel took place at Cape
Francois on the 20th of June. On the same day, the seamen left their
ships in the roads, and came on shore, and made common cause with
the white inhabitants of the town. On the other side were ranged the
mulattoes and other people of color, and these were afterwards joined
by some insurgent blacks. The battle lasted nearly two days. During
this time, the arsenal was taken and plundered, some thousands were
killed in the streets, and more than half of the town was burned. The
commissioners, who were witnesses of the horrible scene, and who had
done all that they could to restore peace, escaped unhurt; but they were
left upon a heap of ruins, and with little more power than the authority
which their commission gave them. They had only about a thousand
troops left in the place. They determined, therefore, under these
circumstances, to call in the slaves in their neighborhood to their
assistance. They issued a proclamation in consequence, by which they

promised to give freedom to all the blacks who were willing to range
themselves under the banner of the republic.
This was the first proclamation made by public authority for
emancipating slaves in St. Domingo, and was usually called the
proclamation of Santhonax. The result of it was, that a considerable
number of slaves came in, and were enfranchised.
Soon after this transaction, Polverel left his colleague, Santhonax, at
the Cape, and went in his capacity of commissioner to Port au Prince,
the capital of the West. Here he found every thing quiet, and cultivation
in a flourishing state. From Port au Prince he visited Aux Cayes, the
capital of the South. He had not, however, been long there, before he
found that the minds of the slaves began to be in an unsettled state.
They had become acquainted with what had taken place in the North;
not only with the riots at the Cape, but the proclamation of Santhonax.
Polverel, therefore, seeing the impression which it had begun to make
on the minds of the slaves in these parts, was convinced that
emancipation could neither be prevented, nor even retarded; and that it
was absolutely necessary, for the personal safety of the white planters,
that it should be extended to the whole island. He was so convinced of
the necessity of this, that in September, 1793, he drew up a
proclamation without further delay to that effect, and put it into
circulation. He dated it from Aux Cayes. He exhorted the planters to
patronise it. He advised them, if they wished to avoid the most serious
calamities, to concur themselves in the proposition of giving freedom
to their slaves. He then caused a registry to be opened at the
government house, to receive the signatures of those who should
approve of his advice. It was remarkable that all the proprietors in these
parts inscribed their names in this book. He then caused a similar
registry to be opened at Port au Prince for the West. Here the same
disposition was found to prevail. All the planters, except one, gave in
their signatures. They had become pretty generally convinced, by this
time, that their own personal safety was connected with the measure.
We may now add that, in the month of February, 1794, the
Conventional Assembly of France passed a decree for the abolition of
slavery throughout the whole of the French Colonies. Thus the

government of the mother country confirmed freedom to those, on
whom it had been bestowed by the commissioners. This decree,
therefore, put the finishing stroke to the whole. It completed the
emancipation of the whole slave population of St. Domingo.
With regard to the conduct of those who were emancipated by
Santhonax in