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, revealing the gap between the end of legal ownership and control over labor. Formerly enslaved people’s freedom was real and consequential, yet republican officials sought to preserve plantation production through discipline and compulsory work. Emancipation therefore remained a contested process shaped by the actions of the people who had rebelled.
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What condition accompanied Polverel’s 21 September emancipation in the West and South?
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Explanation
Newly freed people were required to continue working plantations.