The whites balked at any concessions, but when Armand threatened to attack Les Cayes and burn the city down, the Provincial Assembly offered to grant freedom to several hundred slaves.19 The freedom papers were signed by Rigaud and the Provincial Assembly, and some slaves were suspicious of their validity because they had not been signed by their masters. Furthermore, freedom was granted only to those who had been armed by free-coloreds, and not to those who had been armed by whites or who had risen up independently. Only a little more than half of the eligible 700 accepted the offer. The others stayed at Platons, trusting their weapons rather than the papers offered to guarantee the freedom they had claimed for themselves.

Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ …, loc. 202