Free-colored militia troops proved more disease-resistant than newly arrived French soldiers

Evidence

In the early eighteenth century, segregated free-colored militia units were formed, and over time administrators came increasingly to depend on them to assure the defense of the colony. The first free-colored army units were formed during the Seven Years’ War, and although the several hundred men who joined spent the war quietly along the border with Santo Domingo, observers noted their value. Whereas many of the fresh French troops who arrived in the colony during the war succumbed to tropical diseases, the local free-colored troops remained healthy. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 235

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader Atlantic-world pattern of creole vs. metropolitan troops and the epidemiological advantage of local populations—echoes themes in the Spanish Armada reading about acclimatization to local conditions.