Polverel formally abolished slavery in the west and south on October 31

Evidence

Finally, on October 31, Polverel decreed that all “Affricains & Affricaines” (African men and African women), as well as all descendants of Africans—and all those who were to arrive in the colony or to be “born there in the future”—were “free” and “equal to all men.” They would enjoy “all the rights of French citizens and all the other rights pronounced” in the Declaration of the Rights of Man. The Declaration itself was translated into Creole and posted and distributed so it would be accessible to all. All men over eighteen were to present themselves to the local administration, where after taking an oath they would receive a printed declaration of their French citizenship. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 565

Categorization

• DEFINE: Shows how French revolutionary citizenship was operationalized legally in the colonies — oath-taking and printed declarations.
• XREF: Connects to the tension between metropolitan Declaration of the Rights of Man principles and their colonial application, echoing the ‘Complaints’ interest in how universalist rhetoric meets concrete class/status realities.