French law first enfranchised only propertied free people of color born free.

Evidence

Julien Raimond and Grégoire had convinced many that it would be a travesty for the Revolution to allow the oppression of free people of color by colonial whites. The two sides wrangled behind the scenes in the National Assembly, and eventually a compromise was brought to the people’s representatives: political rights would be given to free people of color who had been born to two free parents. The free people of color Raimond had always put forward as the representatives of his class—those, like him, who owned property and slaves—were to be enfranchised. But those who had been recently freed, and who were assumed to have dangerous solidarities with those who were still enslaved, would be excluded from political power. It was a timid granting of rights, and furthermore did not revoke the discriminatory laws in place in Saint-Domingue. Nevertheless, a significant step had been taken: the color line had been crossed. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 305

Categorization

• XREF: The class-based split among free people of color mirrors the metropolitan distinction between active and passive citizens, and anticipates the deeper divisions that the Haitian Revolution will later exploit.