1794, June: (The Recall of the Commissioners): Just three days after arriving in Jacmel, Sonthonax and Polvérel were arrested under a warrant from Robespierr…

1794, June: (The Recall of the Commissioners): Just three days after arriving in Jacmel, Sonthonax and Polvérel were arrested under a warrant from Robespierre and ordered back to Paris to account for their administration. Before his departure, Polvérel wrote to Rigaud, identifying him as the last man capable of restoring French authority and frustrating “perfidious plots”. This departure signaled a transition of power to two local leaders: Toussaint, the noir, and Rigaud, the mulâtre. As the commissioners left, the British victory in Port-au-Prince was already being undermined by a massive outbreak of Yellow Fever that killed 40 officers and 600 soldiers within sixty days.