Final Proclamation to the Inhabitants of Saint-Domingue (December 19, 1801)

Toussaint Louverture's final major public proclamation, issued December 19, 1801, in response to — entirely accurate — rumors that France was preparing a military expedition to retake the colony. The document is a declaration of readiness and an appeal to colonial solidarity against threatened restoration of slavery, made only weeks before the Leclerc expedition arrived in January 1802.