Toussaint Louverture issues his dictatorial proclamation at Cap-Français

Moise, Toussaint Louverture’s adopted nephew and commander of the North, had sided with the cultivators against the plantation system Toussaint was enforcing. The revolt was crushed and Moise was shot. On 25 November 1801, 4 Frimaire Year X, Toussaint issued the proclamation Victor Schoelcher later called dictatorial. It bound field workers to their plantations under military discipline, laid penalties on idleness and on officers who tolerated disorder, and ordered his earlier labor regulations enforced to the letter. He had it read aloud in every parish after mass. Ten weeks later Leclerc’s fleet appeared off the coast.