The same boat that had carried the official news of the abolition of slavery to Saint-Domingue had also, ironically, brought an order for the commissioners Sonthonax and Polverel to report back to Paris. There they would have to face charges levied by exiled planters who were set on taking revenge against them. For Sonthonax, a "more curious mixture of triumph and humiliation could scarcely be imagined." His actions in Saint- Domingue had been vindicated by the Convention, but he was being called back to stand trial in front of the "aristocrats of the skin" whose power he and Polverel had destroyed by proclaiming emancipation.

Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ …, loc. 260