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Updated: May 22, 2025
Can we forget that by the decree of Polverel, sanctioned afterwards by the Convention, all the slaves were made free at once, or in a single day? No notice was given of the event, and of course no preparation could be made for it. They were released suddenly from all their former obligations and restraints.
This was the first proclamation made by public authority for emancipating slaves in St. Domingo. 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.
A shout was presently heard, which must have sounded far up the mountains and over the bay; and Polverel started with surprise when his word came back to him in a response like that of an assembled nation. "L'ouverture!" "L'ouverture!" cried the multitude, fully comprehending what the word contained in its application to their chief, "Toussaint L'Ouverture!"
"Now look the other way," said the commander of the vessel; "if there is no help at sea, try if there be none on land. I have been watching that mountain-side for some time; and, if I am not much mistaken, there is an army of dusky fellows there." "Dusky! mulattoes! then we are lost!" cried Polverel. "If the mulattoes from the south have come up in any numbers "
They were made free for military purposes only; and we have no clue whereby we can find out what became of them afterwards. With respect to those who were emancipated next in the South, and those directly afterwards in the West, by the proclamation of Polverel, we are enabled to give a very pleasing account.
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.
The Government of that island was French, or white, from the very infancy of emancipation to the arrival of the expedition of Leclerc. The slaves were made free under the government of Santhonax and Polverel. When these retired, other white commissioners succeeded them. When Toussaint came into power, he was not supreme; Generals Hedouille, Vincent, and others, had a share in the government.
The town of Cap Francais was next morning in a hurry, which attracted the attention of General Laveaux in his prison, and the French commissary, Polverel, on board the vessel in the roads, in which he had taken refuge from the mulattoes, and where he held himself in readiness to set sail for France, in case of any grave disaster befalling the General or the troops.
Domingo in 1791 and 1792, with the effects of the emancipation of the slaves. The great massacres and conflagrations which at that time made so frightful a picture in the history of this unhappy island, occurred in the days of slavery, before the proclamation of Santhonax and Polverel, and before the great conventional decree of the mother country was known.
Polverel therefore, seeing the impression which it had begun to make upon the minds of the slaves in these parts, was convinced that emancipation could be neither stopped nor retarded, and that it was absolutely necessary for the personal safety of the white planters, that it should be extended to the whole island.
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