Free coloreds resented white governors ruling their own colony

Evidence

His conflict with Louverture put him also at odds with Governor Laveaux, who was already unpopular with many in Le Cap. Under Villatte’s regime, free coloreds had taken up places in the town’s administration, but some resented the fact that they were still under the orders of Laveaux. They were disappointed when he named a white officer, rather than Villatte, general of the army of the Northern province. As Laveaux wrote in January 1796, some free coloreds despaired that it was not “one of them” who was governor of Saint-Domingue in his place. “It is my country and not his,” they said. “Why send us whites to govern and administer our country?” — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 690

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader racial-caste conflicts seen throughout the reader’s French-colonial and revolutionary reading.