You Are All Free: The Haitian Revolution and the Abolition of Slavery

The definitive account of how abolition in Saint-Domingue emerged from political and military crisis rather than from abstract benevolence, centered on the June 20–21, 1793 crisis at Cap-François: the commissioners under attack, the white-sailor revolt around Thomas François Galbaud, the destruction of the colonial capital, and Sonthonax's first offer of freedom to Black fighters. Popkin reconstructs how a contingent military emergency produced the first emancipation decree — and how that local act eventually became the February 1794 French National Convention decree abolishing slavery across all French colonies.