Sonthonax created the colony’s first racially integrated governing commission

Evidence

Instead, Sonthonax and Polverel replaced the assembly with an “Intermediary Commission.” Six of its members were chosen by the outgoing Colonial Assembly, who selected six whites. The other six were to be chosen by the commissioners, who selected six free men of color, including Pierre Pinchinat. The racially integrated commission—the first of its kind in the colony—was a powerful symbol of what the commissioners hoped to achieve. But it had little power—or will—to oppose the Republican commissioners who had formed it. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 501

Categorization

• SEED: The gap between symbolic integration and actual power in the Intermediary Commission is a template for revolutionary institutions that are visually radical but functionally conservative.