Insurgents demanded total emancipation, not incremental reform, from the start

Evidence

Early in the insurrection, one group presented a clear set of demands. They approached a French officer and told him that they would surrender if “all the slaves should be made free.” But they were “determined to die, arms in hand, rather than to submit without a promise of liberty.” — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 361