Publicly accepting such a provision would have been a provocation to the French government, for it was essentially a declaration of independence: even as armed U.S. and British ships would be entering the ports, French ships arriving from elsewhere would be turned back. But, as Stevens assured Secretary of State Pickering in May 1799, Louverture "privately" agreed to this demand. During the next year, of the nearly 1,800 ships that came in and out of Saint-Domingue for trade, only 15 were French, while most of the rest were British and North American. The trade with the United States was particularly important to Louverture because, unlike the British, whose merchants were primarily supplying provisions, the merchants from the north were a source of guns and ammunition.

Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ …, loc. 320