Polverel’s plan would have converted slave plantations into independent farms after the war.

Evidence

Polverel’s proclamation provided no details about how and when land would be distributed. The plantations belonged “in common” to the “universality” of the “warriors” and eligible “cultivators,” but as long as the war continued they would remain “undivided.” They would be broken up only once victory was assured. In the meantime, everything produced on the Republic’s plantations—where the now-free cultivators were ordered to remain and “fertilize the soil with their labor”—would be divided up among the workers and the “warriors.” They would receive different amounts according to their age, gender—women received half as much as men—and rank in the hierarchies of the army and the plantation. The freeing and payment of former slaves were themselves radical steps, and the deferred promise made by Polverel had dramatic implications: when the war was over, fields of cane and coffee were to become homesteads, and slaves independent farmers. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 560

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the tensions over land distribution and coercion in post-independence Haiti, a theme that recurs even in this book’s framing. — connects to: Former slaves sought land independence by buying small plots and leaving plantations; Freed slaves turned ruined plantations into independent subsistence family plots; Republican promises threatened to convert plantations into independent farms. (+2 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Former slaves sought land independence by buying small plots and leaving plantations; Freed slaves turned ruined plantations into independent subsistence family plots; Republican promises threatened to convert plantations into independent farms. (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Republican promises threatened to convert plantations into independent farms. #corroborates (0.92)