Discrimination against black officers drove Dieudonné to negotiate with the British

Evidence

In late 1795 the tensions between Dieudonné and Rigaud and Bauvais reached a breaking point. Dieudonné complained of their discrimination against black officers, pointing out that there were none in the towns under their command. Fed up, he opened negotiations with the British in Portau-Prince. During the previous years his army had besieged the city by damming up the streams that brought water from the mountains to the city. Now, as a goodwill gesture, his troops let the water flow down once again. Dieudonné requested that a market be opened where his followers could sell the harvests from their mountain plots, and in early January his soldiers, “armed and defiant,” sold poultry and vegetables to the hungry residents of Port-au-Prince. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 684

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the wider theme in this book and to how internal racism among revolutionaries drove alliances with colonial enemies — echoes in the wider Atlantic context of enslaved people choosing imperial patrons. — connects to: The colored-African officer conflict merely migrated into the Rigaud-Louverture rivalry; Friction with colored officers pushed an African-born commander toward the British.; British occupation of Saint-Domingue reimposed racial discrimination that alienated free-coloreds (+1 more)
• CANDY: The image of defiant rebel soldiers selling vegetables at a city market they had once besieged by cutting off water is oddly vivid and scalable as an anecdote.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 684

Broader Connections

• Friction with colored officers pushed an African-born commander toward the British. #corroborates (0.85)
• British occupation of Saint-Domingue reimposed racial discrimination that alienated free-coloreds #complicates (0.50)
• Black generals initially stayed loyal to the French while their troops defected #contradicts (0.40)