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1793

1793: (The Failed Introduction of the Guillotine): The commissioner Sonthonax attempted to introduce the guillotine to Saint-Domingue as a tool of revolution…

Haitian

1793: (The Failed Introduction of the Guillotine): The commissioner Sonthonax attempted to introduce the guillotine to Saint-Domingue as a tool of revolutionary justice. He set the machine up in Port-au-Prince and carried out a single execution of a royalist named Pélou. However, the mechanical efficiency of the death-dealer so unnerved and horrified the watching crowd that they spontaneously pulled the machine down like a goal post. Following this act of public rejection, the guillotine was never employed again in the colony. This rejection highlights a limit to the “Evangel of France” when confronted with the visceral reality of the Terror.