1793-Nov.: A Boston newspaper reported that South Carolina authorities had apprehended French “emissaries” from Saint-Domingue carrying papers detailing plan…

1793-Nov.: A Boston newspaper reported that South Carolina authorities had apprehended French “emissaries” from Saint-Domingue carrying papers detailing plans for a general slave insurrection. The implicated republicans argued they were being persecuted for their political beliefs and that the documents were merely routine diplomatic correspondence. They assured southern Americans that they had nothing to fear from “true republicans” and French patriots. However, the emancipation decrees issued by the Civil Commissioners in the Caribbean continued to sharpen the fears of the North American plantocracy. This atmosphere of suspicion demonstrated how the Haitian Revolution had internationalized the struggle over the future of slavery.