Toussaint entered Les Cayes to the sound of bells and artillery and issued a proclamation of oblivion.

Toussaint made his entry into Les Cayes on 13 thermidor (1 August), to the sound of bells and artillery. He devoutly heard mass. He issued a proclamation in which he rendered praise to God for having blessed the good cause; in it he solemnly renewed the assurance of the most complete oblivion of all the events that had taken place, calling heaven to witness the purity of his intentions and of his magnanimity. He urged all to work and to concord. He even went to the Laborde plantation, where he held an assembly of the heads of work gangs; he catechized these worthy people: “Why should I wish ill to the *mulâtres*?” he said to them; “*est-ce que chiens jamais modé petits là yo jousque dans zos?*” (do dogs ever bite their young so as to do them harm?) But, according to an old Black man who had attended this address, “the dogs did more than bite their young to the bone; they devoured them! *Non-seulement nous voaï chien modé pitit’ li jouque dans zos; mais nous voaï encô chien mangé pitit’ li!*”