Page:Haiti- Her History and Her Detractors.djvu/74

66 had bent beneath the shameful yoke of slavery. Article 12 of this decree ordered that a third of the products of every plantation be divided among the cultivators. Surprised by the radical measures taken by Sonthonax, Polvérel was at first uncertain as to what course he should pursue. But the impatience of the slaves, the growing dangers which threatened the colony, soon decided him to adopt his colleague's views. Thinking that an imposing ceremony should accompany such a step he ordered a general gathering at the Place d'Armes in Port-au-Prince of all the citizens, white and colored; and on September 21, 1793, the anniversary of the establishment of the French Republic, he publicly declared, at the "autel de la Patrie," that slavery was abolished in all the communes of the West. In their enthusiasm many slave-owners signed their adherence to this great act of social reparation, on registers previously prepared for that purpose. Two days after, the name of Port-au-Prince was changed to Port-Républicain, "in order that the inhabitants be kept continually in mind of the obligations which the French revolution imposed on them." On October 6, 1793, Polvérel, then at Cayes, freed the slaves of the South. Thus the coalition of the wealthy planters of Saint-Domingue with the English and the Spaniards had the effect of hastening the abolition of the very institution of slavery which it was their intention to preserve and maintain in the colony had their efforts been crowned with success. After two long years of struggle and of suffering the blacks eventually were delivered forever from this barbarous and inhuman system. In Saint-Domingue men would no longer be the property of men. The revolution was complete. It remained but for the logic of events to accomplish the rest.