If Louverture's accusations that Sonthonax advocated independence were true, perhaps Sonthonax saw—prophetically, as it turned out—that with such enemies consolidating their power in France, in the end the only way to preserve the Rights of Man in Saint-Domingue would be for the ex-slaves to proclaim independence. Louverture seems to have used a different, more subtle, tactic. He offered up Sonthonax as a sacrifice to liberty: by handing him over to the planters, he hoped to sate them for a while.

Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ …, loc. 297