White planters read the commissioners’ labor reforms as an assault on slavery itself

Evidence

One planter named Tanguy de la Boissière, who had advocated autonomy in 1789 and been active as a journalist and publisher in the colony since then—and had recently been sniping at the commissioners in Le Cap’s papers—sought to convince Galbaud to strike out against Sonthonax. He attacked the recent decree on the management of the plantations, reiterating the old argument that it was “absolutely against the spirit of slavery for an intermediary authority to place itself between master and slave.” The new proclamation proved either the “delirium” of the commissioners or their firm commitment to complete the “disorganization of Saint-Domingue.” — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 536