Sonthonax defended violent rights violations by denying that rights applied in a slave colony.

Evidence

In late October the three commissioners split up, with Polverel and Ailhaud leaving to assume governance in the west and south. Ailhaud took advantage of the move to escape from Saint-Domingue, leaving Polverel in charge of both regions. Sonthonax, more strident and combative than Polverel, was soon embroiled in conflict in Le Cap. When a group of whites broke into a prison and massacred whites and slave insurgents locked up there, he blamed the attack on a political group in Le Cap and disbanded it. When Polverel criticized his actions, Sonthonax retorted: “You accuse me of having violated in this the rights of man and citizen, as if the rights of men could be claimed in a land of slavery.” — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 502