Decree abolishing slavery in the North of Saint-Domingue (1793)

Two years after the onset of the Haitian Revolution, Léger Félicité Sonthonax a French Commissioner in Saint-Domingue issued a decree abolishing slavery in the North of the colony. This was of course vehemently opposed by the French slave holders and the merchants profiting from the trade.

Sonthonax issued this decree in the Haitian Creole of the time as well as in French, the official language of Saint-Domingue. The goal was the wide distribution of this important document.