Sonthonax initially defended slavery as necessary to colonial prosperity.

Evidence

Sonthonax declared that the colonial assemblies were the only bodies with “the right to rule on the lot of the slaves” and that slavery was “necessary to the cultivation and prosperity of the colonies.” It was neither his nor the National Assembly’s intention to attack the rights of the planters in this regard. (Several months later, in a private letter to Brissot, Sonthonax noted his opposition to any sudden emancipation, which would “undoubtedly lead to the massacre of all the whites.”) — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 494

Categorization

Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims

• XREF: Contradicts any assumption that the man who later abolished slavery arrived as an immediate abolitionist.

Related

• The commissioners initially defended slavery to reassure colonists. (similarity 0.89)
• Sonthonax justified harsh rule by denying rights applied in a slave society (similarity 0.86)
• French commissioners initially backed slavery as necessary to colonial survival (similarity 0.85)
• Sonthonax saw revolutionary rights claims as hollow in a slave colony (similarity 0.83)
• Sonthonax may have foreseen independence as the sole safeguard of emancipation (similarity 0.83)
• Sonthonax defended violent rights violations by denying that rights applied in a slave colony. (similarity 0.82)
• Sonthonax framed insurgent slaves as fighting France’s own anti-tyranny struggle. (similarity 0.79)
• Sonthonax decreed general emancipation for Saint-Domingue’s Northern Province in August 1793. (similarity 0.79)
• Sonthonax prophesied Africans taking part in French assemblies as early as 1790 (similarity 0.78)
• White colonists argued that even free-colored rights would shatter slave obedience (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Colonial officials rationalized domination by claiming trusteeship over the colonized #exemplifies (0.60) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1171
• Colonial dominion was justified as the natural right of those capable of ruling #exemplifies (0.50) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 244