Experienced officers argued that victory required arming free-coloreds

Evidence

The available soldiers had been sent into the field, along with many civilians recruited into this desperate war. But by early November the two most important officers leading the campaign were convinced that this would not be enough. The only way to assure a victory, they argued, was to enlist the support of the free-coloreds. “What is the white population compared to the multitude of rebel slaves?” asked Rouvray in a speech to the assembly in Le Cap. “Isn’t this enemy enough, without continuing to provoke the free-coloreds?” Invoking the “authority of history”—and drawing on his experience as a commander of free-colored troops during the American Revolution—he reminded his audience that these troops were superior to soldiers arriving from Europe, who were always decimated by disease. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 401