Colonial militias quickly broke and fled before the slave insurgents

Evidence

Many whites fled the region, but at the La Gossette plantation Odeluc, Mossut, and a small detachment of National Guard troops prepared to confront the insurgents. As soon as they arrived, however, the soldiers threw down their weapons and fled through the cane fields toward Le Cap. “We were attacked by a horde of assassins, and could offer only meager resistance,” wrote Mossut. “After the first volley, we took refuge in flight.” Odeluc, weighed down by his boots and his age, was surrounded by insurgents and killed. Mossut, however, escaped when a domestic slave of the plantation appeared and presented him with a horse. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 325

Categorization

• XREF: The National Guard’s collapse here prefigures the pattern of French military failures this colonial force will repeat against later phases of the revolution.