Port-au-Prince. Polvérel frees the slaves at a ceremony on the place d’armes and renames the town Port-Républicain.

Polvérel, older and less impetuous than Sonthonax, blamed his colleague for having proclaimed liberty without any restriction whatever; he even forbade the publication of the proclamation of 29 August. On this occasion, man of talent though he was, he had the simplicity to ask the enslaved of the West whether they would not prefer to become free by degrees. He addressed them as brothers and friends; they answered him with insurrection. In the heights of Saint-Marc they gave everything over to devastation and the flames. Then he perceived that he could only follow Sonthonax’s example. He hastened to summon all citizens who claimed to own people to the celebration of the anniversary of the founding of the Republic. On 22 September the whole population of Port-au-Prince was gathered on the place d’armes; Polvérel, surrounded by the authorities of the town, arrived amid universal acclamation and mounted the altar of the fatherland. He was a handsome man; he had large blue eyes, red hair and a somber countenance that republican enthusiasm lit up at intervals. The enslavers came one after another to sign, in a great register lying open on the altar, that they recognized their captives as free. At the close of the ceremony Polvérel declared French citizens all the unfortunates whom servitude held beneath its yoke. It was at this solemnity that he gave Port-au-Prince the name of Port-Républicain.