Metropolitan abolitionists controlled colonial policy and appointed radical commissioners in 1792

Evidence

When, in March and April 1792, Brissot and his allies gained control over colonial policy and pushed through the April 4 decree granting political rights to all free-coloreds, they turned to Sonthonax and Polverel. The task of applying this decree in the colonies, as Brissot well knew, would be a difficult one, and would require more firmness and ruthlessness than the previous metropolitan representatives in Saint-Domingue had mustered. Confident in their principles, Brissot supported the candidacy of Sonthonax and Polverel to the position of commissioners for Saint- Domingue. (He also supported the candidacy of Julien Raimond, but the planters in the National Assembly successfully blocked this nomination.) — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 489

Categorization

• XREF: The blockage of the free-colored leader Julien Raimond’s nomination matters for the colonial color hierarchy and anticipates later free-colored versus white rivalries.