Anti-maroon campaigns armed free people of color and sparked demands for inclusion

Evidence

The presence of maroon communities in Saint-Domingue contributed to the fissures in colonial society. In order to fight maroons the administra-54 av e n g e r s o f t h e n e w w o r l d tion ultimately turned to free people of color. In so doing they laid the foundation for demands for inclusion that ignited the colony during the revolution. Maroons, by successfully flouting slavery, were also an inspiration and example for the enslaved, as well as for antislavery writers. The 1791 revolt, however, emerged from the heart of the thriving sugar plantations of the northern plain, and the existing maroon communities were not involved in its planning. More important for the revolt were the practices of marronage on the edges of plantations, or in the towns, which had helped sustain a culture of autonomy and the networks that connected various plantations. Like religious ceremonies and Sunday gatherings, the practice of running away laid the groundwork for an uprising that united slaves across plantations and in so doing enabled them to smash the system from within. Once they had risen up in 1791, however, slave insurgents did use tactics pioneered by maroons in defending their mountain camps against French attacks. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 199

Categorization

• XREF: Directly chains into the three-way racial friction of the revolution, tying marronage to the free-colored question that recurs in the arc.