Two months later, in Saint-Domingue, a judge in Saint-Marc condemned Louverture for having defrauded a group of planters in 1799 by paying them too little for some of their properties in the Artibonite. The planters were invited to take back the properties, while the defendant, having “failed to appear,” was condemned to pay the court costs incurred by the planters. It was a gesture in futility on two counts. Louverture, of course, was not going to pay his fine, and there was little hope that the planters would recover their land.

Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ …, loc. 434