Popkin argues that the Haitian insurrection deserves the same close attention to turning points that historians give the American and French revolutions, and that no episode was more decisive than the days beginning 20 June 1793 in Cap Francais.

He stresses how unforeseen the outcome was. Those who rose in the North province in August 1791 appear to have wanted extra days each week to work for themselves rather than an end to slavery; by 1792 Biassou was promising to put the French king back on his throne. On the morning of 20 June nobody in the colony or in France, not the insurgents, not their generals, not the free people of color, not the commissioners Sonthonax and Polverel, was calling for general emancipation.

By that evening Sonthonax had issued the first emancipation decree from an official of any Western empire. Within three days the city had burned, thousands were dead, and refugees were scattering to the United States.