Sonthonax issues a proclamation addressing marriage between free men and enslaved women

A peace agreement between white citizens and citizens of color in the western province was marked at Damiens on 23 October 1791. It reflected the pressure free people of color had exerted against...

On 4 April 1792, King Louis XVI sanctioned a law based on the Legislative Assembly’s 28 March vote. It extended political equality to all free men of color in the French colonies and ordered civil...

On 24 September 1792, civil commissioners Polverel, Sonthonax, and Ailhaud issued a proclamation defining their authority in Saint-Domingue. Their mandate was to enforce the 4 April equality law and...

On 3 December 1792, civil commissioner Étienne Polverel issued an ordinance prohibiting designations of color in public acts. The rule challenged official racial categorization within colonial...

On 20 June 1793, sailors and white colonists aligned with Governor Galbaud attacked the civil commissioners at Cap-Français. The fighting set much of the city on fire. Facing defeat, commissioners...

On 29 August 1793, civil commissioner Léger-Félicité Sonthonax proclaimed emancipation in the northern province of Saint-Domingue. The decree followed years of revolt and a military crisis in which...

On 21 September 1793, civil commissioner Étienne Polverel proclaimed emancipation in the western and southern provinces. The decree required newly freed people to continue working on plantations,...

On 31 October 1793, Polverel issued rules concerning the policing and discipline of emancipated plantation workshops. The ordinance demonstrates that official emancipation did not end attempts to...

On 4 February 1794 (16 Pluviôse Year II), the French National Convention abolished slavery in all French colonies and granted citizenship to formerly enslaved people. This national decree came after...

In May 1794, Toussaint Louverture transferred his forces from the Spanish alliance to the French Republic. Historians disagree about the exact date and the balance of motives; 6 May appears in one...