Sonthonax announced emancipation before knowing the Convention had decreed it

Evidence

Sonthonax had come to join Polverel to direct the defense of the town, and the commissioners strengthened their forces as they had in Le Cap by recruiting soldiers from among the bands of insurgents in the surrounding plain. In his bid to secure the loyalty of such ex-slaves, Sonthonax announced in late February that the National Convention had abolished slavery in all the French colonies. He was, of course, guessing—there was no way that he could have known of the decree passed several weeks before in Paris—although, as it turned out, he was right. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 579

Categorization

• QUESTION: The staggering coincidental timing, where a fabricated announcement turned out to be true, raises questions about how the metropolitan decree and colonial events fed back on each other and who in Paris knew what.