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1793-08-29

Sonthonax proclaimed general liberty in the North.

Haitian

«IN THE NAME OF THE REPUBLIC,

«MEN ARE BORN AND REMAIN FREE AND EQUAL IN RIGHTS: There, citizens, is the gospel of France; it is more than time that it be proclaimed in all the departments of the Republic …

«… The dealers in human beings and the man-eaters are no more. Some have perished, victims of their impotent rage; others have sought their safety in flight and in emigration. What remains of whites is friendly to the law and to French principles. The greater part of the population is formed of the men of 4 April, of those men to whom you owe this liberty; who first gave you the example of courage in defending the rights of nature and of humanity; of those men who, proud of their independence, preferred the loss of their property to the shame of resuming their old chains. Never forget, citizens, that you hold from them the arms that have conquered your liberty for you

«The French Republic wills liberty and equality among all men without distinction of color; kings take pleasure only in the midst of the enslaved: it is they who, on the coasts of Africa, sold you to the whites; it is the tyrants of Europe who would wish to perpetuate this infamous traffic. The Republic adopts you among the number of its children; kings aspire only to cover you with chains and to annihilate you….

«Do not believe, however, that the liberty you are about to enjoy is a state of laziness and idleness. In France everyone is free and everyone works. In Saint-Domingue, subject to the same laws, you will follow the same example. Return to your work gangs, or to your former enslavers, and you will receive the wage of your labors; you will no longer be subjected to the humiliating correction that used to be inflicted on you; you will no longer be the property of another; you will remain the proprietors of your own and you will be happy….

Source  ·  p. 213 Joseph Saint-Rémy (des Cayes), Pétion et Haïti: étude monographique et historique, tome 1 (Paris: chez l'auteur, 1854), p. 213; English translation, Rasanblaj.