Former slaves revolted against Louverture fearing he would restore slavery.

Evidence

Many plantation laborers, however, saw the new policy as a retraction of their rights. In his 1793 labor regulations, Sonthonax had required cultivators to sign one-year contracts on their plantations, after which they were permitted to move to another plantation if they wished. Rigaud’s administration in the south had instituted a similar practice. Louverture had consistently ordered workers to return to their plantations, but he had not issued regulations regarding the length of their terms of contracts. In the areas under his control many former slaves seem to have moved between plantations, seeking better treatment or the company of family and friends, with relative impunity. In the increase in the terms of the contracts, some smelled the scent of slavery. A few laborers claimed they would rather “live in the woods their whole life” than sign three-year contracts, and in some towns the registers in which the contracts were to be signed were ripped up. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 770 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

To preserve emancipation, Louverture decided that he must preserve the plantation economy and encourage the return of white planters who had fled. Locked in conflict with ex-slaves who had a very different vision of what freedom should mean, he maintained and perfected a coercive system that sought to keep them working on plantations. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 28 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The former slave craves overt conflict to prove his humanity; Freed slaves feared the uncertainty of independent work more than slavery’s abuses.; The revolt’s arrival plunged Le Cap into terror and reprisals against slaves. (+7 more)

Related

• Former slaves resisted longer labor contracts as a return to slavery (similarity 0.89)
• Old planters exploited Louverture’s labor decree to threaten re-enslavement (similarity 0.89)
• Louverture’s decree barred poor former slaves from acquiring land (similarity 0.88)
• Louverture forced freed people to stay working on the plantations, opposing their own aspirations (similarity 0.86)
• Revolt empowered individual slaves to seize control of plantations (similarity 0.85)
• Louverture preserved emancipation by coercing ex-slaves to keep working plantations (similarity 0.85)
• Louverture tied emancipation to continued plantation labor, clashing with ex-slaves’ aspirations (similarity 0.84)
• Freed slaves feared the uncertainty of independent work more than slavery’s abuses. (similarity 0.84)
• Ex-slaves had to surrender freedom to work as cultivators to defend emancipation. (similarity 0.84)
• Louverture warned restrictions on freedom would provoke rebellion (similarity 0.83)
• Louverture ordered freed cultivators back to their former plantations (similarity 0.83)
• Ex-slaves built a subsistence-based rural economy on former plantations (similarity 0.83)
• Even after emancipation ex-slaves revolted against plantation labor, fearing re-enslavement (similarity 0.82)
• Brazilian ex-slaves resisted exchanging freedom for proletarianized labor. (similarity 0.82)
• Toussaint Louverture preserved emancipation by coercing former slaves to labor (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Dessalines ordered massacres of whites fearing they would restore slavery #corroborates (0.75)
• Former slaves resisted longer labor contracts as a return to slavery #corroborates (0.70) — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 770
• Louverture preserved emancipation by coercing ex-slaves to keep working plantations #expands (0.65) — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 28
• Ex-slaves resisted masters’ return while tolerating them as mere residents #corroborates (0.60)
• Old planters exploited Louverture’s labor decree to threaten re-enslavement #expands (0.55)
• Louverture’s decree barred poor former slaves from acquiring land #expands (0.50)