Dessalines ordered massacres of whites fearing they would restore slavery

Evidence

Descourtilz wrote that he had witnessed them being slaughtered by the hundreds under Dessalines’s direct orders. His account was corroborated by Lacroix, who described finding 800 corpses in the town of Verrettes as he pursued Dessalines’s retreating troops, and coming across other piles of bodies along the route they had taken into the mountains. Seeking to spare his troops from the stench of one group of bodies piled up near their camp, and lacking shovels to build a mass grave, he burned them. Instead of removing the odor, this move filled the air with an even more acrid smell, one he was never able to remove from his clothes. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 963 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Former slaves revolted against Louverture fearing he would restore slavery.; Northern plantation uprisings in 1801 killed hundreds of whites before Dessalines suppressed them.; Dessalines disposed of captured whites and covered up the killings. (+2 more)

Related

• Dessalines’ troops massacred hundreds of white prisoners during retreat. (similarity 0.95)
• Dessalines disposed of captured whites and covered up the killings. (similarity 0.95)
• Northern plantation uprisings in 1801 killed hundreds of whites before Dessalines suppressed them. (similarity 0.93)
• Dessalines ordered mass slaughter of white civilians during his retreat (similarity 0.90)
• Dessalines justified massacring whites as punishment for pro-slavery conspiracy (similarity 0.85)
• Dessalines pre-authorized killing of French-allied whites but spared culturally assimilated ones. (similarity 0.81)
• Dessalines burned Saint-Marc and massacred its white residents in retreat. (similarity 0.80)
• Dessalines publicly renounced the French mission and its massacres. (similarity 0.80)
• Slaveholders committed far more atrocities than revolting slaves did (similarity 0.79)
• Dessalines broke with the French over their massacres of blacks (similarity 0.79)
• Dessalines publicly promised independence and total expulsion of whites (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Dessalines’ troops massacred hundreds of white prisoners during retreat. #expands (0.70) — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 963
• Slaveholders committed far more atrocities than revolting slaves did #contradicts (0.50)