Slavery and Emancipation

Léger-Félicité Sonthonax (1763–1813) was from a wealthy family from Oyonnax in eastern France who became an abolitionist and Girondin in 1791. He was appointed as Civil Commissioner in Saint-Domingue and from September 1792 he and Étienne Polverel (1740-95) became the de facto rulers of the island’s non-slave population, charged with implementing the decree of 4 April 1792 guaranteeing equal rights to all freed slaves. His proclamation of August 1793 was designed to win over the slave population to France’s side during the wars with England and Spain as well as extend an earlier decree promising freedom in Saint-Domingue.

In the Name of the Republic:

We, Léger Félicité Sonthonax, Civil Commissioner of the Republic, delegate to the French windward islands of America for the reestablishment there of order and public tranquility.

Men are born and remain free and equal in rights; this, citizens is the gospel of France. It is high time that it is proclaimed in all the departments of the Republic.

Sent by the Nation in the quality of Civil Commissioners to Saint-Domingue, our mission was to see to it that the law of 4 April was executed, to have it reign in all its force, and to gradually prepare there, without causing rifts and upset, the general freeing of the slaves.

On our arrival we found a frightful schism among the whites who, divided in interests and opinions, were in agreement on only one point, that of eternally perpetuating the servitude of the negroes as well as proscribing any system of liberty, and even of improvement in their lot. In order to foil the ill-intentioned and to reassure spirits, with all on the alert for fear of a sudden change, we declared that slavery was necessary to cultivation.

We were telling the truth, Citizens: slavery was then essential, as much for the continuation of labour as for the preservation of the colonists. Saint-Domingue was still in the power of a horde of ferocious tyrants who publicly preached that the colour of skin should be the sign of power or reprobation. The judges of the unfortunate Ogé*, the henchmen and the members of those infamous provost commissions who filled the cities with gallows and wheels for sacrificing Africans and men of colour to their atrocious pretensions, all these bloodthirsty individuals still populated the colony. If by the greatest of imprudence we had, at that time, broken the bonds that chained slaves to their masters their first impulse would doubtless have been to throw themselves on their executioners and, in their too just fury, they would easily have confounded the innocent with the guilty. In any event, our powers did not extend so far as pronouncing on the lot of Africans, and we would have been traitors and criminals if the law had been violated by us.

Today the circumstances are quite different. The slave owners and the man-eaters are no more. Some have perished, victims of their impotent rage, and others have sought their salvation in flight and emigration. Those of the whites that are left are friends of the law and of French principles. The greater part of the population is formed of men of 4 April, of those men to whom you owe your liberty, who were the first to set an example of courage in defending the rights of nature and humanity; men who, proud of their independence, preferred the loss of their property to the shame of again imposing the ancient irons. Never forget, Citizens, that you owe them the arms that conquered your freedom; never forget that it is for the French Republic that you fought; that of all the whites in the universe the only ones who are your friends are the French of Europe.

The French Republic wants liberty and equality among all men, without distinction of colour. Kings are only happy among slaves. It is they who, on the coasts of Africa, sold you to whites. It is the tyrants of Europe who want to perpetuate this infamous traffic. The REPUBLIC adopts you as its children; kings aspire only to keep you in chains or to annihilate you. …

Nevertheless, do not think that the freedom you are going to enjoy is a state of laziness and leisure. In France everyone is free, and everyone works; in Saint-Domingue, subject to the same laws, you will follow the same example. Return to your workshops or to your former owners; you will receive the wages of your suffering. You will no longer be subjected to the humiliating correction that was once inflicted on you; you will no longer be the property of another: you will remain masters of your own, and you will live happy.

Having become citizens by the will of the French Nation you should also be zealous respecters of its decrees. You will doubtless defend the interests of the Republic against kings, less from a sentiment of your independence than from gratitude for the benefits it has bestowed on you. Freedom makes you pass from nothingness to existence: show yourselves worthy of it. Forever abjure indolence and brigandage: have the courage to strive to be a people and you will soon be the equal of European nations. …

In these circumstances, the civil commissioner, deliberating over the individual petition signed in common assembly; exercising the powers delegated to him by Art. III of the decree of the National Convention on 6 March last; has ordered and orders the following to be executed in the Northern Province:

First Article

The Declaration of the Rights of man and Citizen shall be printed, published, and posted wherever need be, on the responsibility of municipal officers, cities and towns, and of military commanders in camps and posts.

All Negroes and mixed bloods currently enslaved are declared free in order as to enjoy all the rights attached to the quality of French citizen. They will nevertheless be subject to a regime whose dispositions will be contained in the following articles.

All former slaves will have themselves, their wives and their children registered at the municipality of their place of residence, where they will receive their ticket as French citizens, signed by the civil commissioner. …

Domestics of both sexes can only be hired in the service of masters or mistresses for three months, and this at a salary that will freely be fixed between them.

Former domestic slaves attached to the elderly of greater than 60 years, to the infirm, to nursing babies and children of less than ten years will not be free to leave them. …

Negroes currently attached to the residences of their former masters will be obliged to remain there. They will be employed in cultivation. …

Former field slaves will be hired for one year, during which time they can only change habitation with the permission of the justice of the peace, who shall be spoken of below and in cases which we shall determine.

The revenue of each habitation will be shared in three equal portions after deduction of imposts, which shall on levied on the whole. A third remains affected to property in land and shall belong to the owner. He will have right to another third for the expenses involved in rendering the land profitable. The remaining third shall be shared among the cultivators in a manner to be fixed. …

Women of fifteen and greater will have a two-third portion.

From ages ten to fifteen, children of both sexes shall have a half-portion. …

Mothers with one or several children less than ten years of age will receive an entire portion. Up till said age children shall remain their parents’ charge for food and clothing.

From the age of ten until fifteen children can only be employed at the guarding of animals or at gathering and separating coffee and cotton.

The elderly and the infirm shall be nourished by their relatives. Clothing and medicine shall be at the charge of the landowner. …

Punishment by whipping is completely abolished. It shall be replaced, for transgressions of discipline, by the bar for one, two, or three days, in keeping with the demands of the case. The strongest penalty shall be the loss of a part or the totality of wages. …

Concerning civil crimes, former slaves shall be judged in the same way as other French citizens.

Cultivators cannot be forced to work on Sundays. They shall be given two hours a day for the cultivation of their own land. The justices of the peace shall regulate, in accordance with the circumstance, the hours at which work shall begin and end. …

Women who are seven months pregnant shall not work in the garden, and shall only return there two months after giving birth. During this time they shall enjoy not less than two thirds of the portion allocated to them.

A fortnight from the date of the promulgation of the present proclamation all men without property and who are neither enrolled nor attached to cultivation nor employed in domestic service and who are found wandering shall be arrested and put in prison.

Women without known means of existence who are not attached to cultivation or employed in domestic service in the abovementioned span of time, or who are found wandering shall also be arrested and put in prison.

The dispositions of the Black Code remain provisionally abrogated.

The present proclamation shall be printed and posted where need be.

It shall be proclaimed at the crossroads and public squares of the cities and provinces of the Northern Province by municipal officers wearing sashes, preceded by liberty bonnets borne at the top of a pike.

We order the intermediary commission, the administrative and judicial bodies to have it transcribed in their registers, published and posted.

We order all military commanders to assist in its execution.

We request that the interim Governor General to see to its execution.

At the Cape, 29 August 1793, the second year of the Republic. Sonthonax

Adapted from: Creative Commons (Attribute & ShareAlike) marxists.org 2007.