Insurgent leaders initially sought to reform slavery rather than abolish it

Evidence

The situation, of course, was different, and they perhaps hoped that, when faced with a mass uprising, slave masters would be willing to make some concessions. Although there was already talk of a “general liberty,” Jean- François and Biassou, like most European abolitionists of the time, pursued the goal of reforming slavery rather than dismantling it. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 434