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 the commissioners needed Black allies to resist counterrevolutionary and foreign forces. Enslaved people had already made slavery difficult to sustain through mass resistance. The decree was a landmark, but it was regional at first and tied to a political and military struggle over the colony’s future.
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Sonthonax’s 29 August decree emancipated people in the northern province.
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Explanation
The 1793 proclamation is held and described by the Library of Congress.