Louverture framed pardons for returning émigrés in Catholic religious terms

Evidence

In Port-au-Prince in mid-August 1798, after a “solemn mass,” Louverture declared that, following the teachings of Catholicism, he was willing to pardon those who had sinned by supporting the British occupation. In early September Louverture called on émigrés in the United States to return to Saint-Domingue, where, like the “prodigal son” returning to their father, they would be pardoned. Among those who responded was a wealthy planter named Bernard Borgella, who had been the mayor of Port-au-Prince during the turbulent early years of the Revolution. The returned planter, a longtime proponent of political and economic autonomy from France, would help shape the black general’s policies. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 794

Categorization

• FICTION: The imagery of Louverture as a father pardoning the ‘prodigal son’ returning planters has strong novelistic texture.
• XREF: Louverture’s Catholic-framed pardon rhetoric parallels sacral kingship and ritual reconciliation motifs.