tations as slaves did not appear possible. Some leaders of the black slaves in the south were approached by the whites to bring the slaves back and were offered their freedom. They refused. However, writes the author "[i]t should be noted here that, during these early struggles, the slaves never demanded outright the abolition of slavery, but rather, as we have seen, freedom for a certain number of them and three days per week for all slaves, thus proceeding tactically and by stages." (Fick 141). Upon their refusal of this limited demands, the black leaders continued the revolt while other minor bands were beginning to revolt against the white man across the South. For the whites Blanchelande, a controller appointed by the French, promised everything that the slaves were demanding, but they had to lay down their arms and return to the plantations. Days later four plantations were burned and a major attack was lead under a heavy storm and fourteen more plantations were destroyed. After months of struggle and seeing the impossible political situation, the blacks demanded territorial rights to the parts occupied by the slaves in the Plantons, the name of the jungle occupied by the slaves, where the maroons had sought refuge from slavery. Tactically, the slaves then attempted to evacuate the whites while they destroyed the mulattoes who had persecuted and killed slaves soon after hearing that the rights of the mulattoes had been restored by France. The whites rejected that the decree of April 4th had ended discrimination. But because "in times of crisis, such prejudices invariably become submerged, and are subsumed by the economic necessities of the ruling class to preserve its property relations, and therefore its survival." (Fick 154). Then the whites were willing to give-in temporarily to the black slave's demands. In December arrived Polverel the new emissary from France placed in charge of the west and South, who refused t...
