Dessalines initially helped the French crush Belair’s uprising against them.

Evidence

In the middle of August the officer Charles Belair—who in 1793 had signed his name alongside those of Jean-François and Biassou to a plan demanding freedom—launched an audacious plot aimed at drawing colonial troops fighting against the French into the opposition. The powerful Dessalines, however, refused to join, and indeed helped the French crush the uprising and capture and execute Belair. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 1017

Categorization

• XREF: Shows Dessalines’ tactical pragmatism before his October turn, key to his arc in the narrative.