Leclerc pleaded with Paris to delay restoring slavery to avoid self-contradiction

Evidence

“I had asked you, citizen consul,” Leclerc lamented to Bonaparte, “not to do anything” that would make the people of Saint-Domingue “fear for their liberty.” Now Bonaparte’s “plans for the colonies” were “perfectly known.” Seeking to hide the truth as long as possible, in late August Leclerc wrote Decrès a letter in a secret numerical code. “Do not consider reestablishing slavery here for some time,” he pleaded. He would make it possible for his successor to do so, but given “the innumerable proclamations” he had made “to assure the blacks of their liberty,” Leclerc did not want to be in “contradiction with himself.” — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 1011