Immediate freedom drew British black troops to defect to the Republicans

Evidence

When General Maitland arrived, Louverture and Rigaud were in the midst of a “concerted attack” against British positions, and as he watched, the Republicans took a series of important mountain forts built by the British. Slaves in the region under British control escaped to join the armies of Louverture, and, more ominously, some soldiers in the black corps deserted, for the first time, to the Republican side. The prospect of immediate rather than deferred freedom, as well as of serving under black rather than white officers, perhaps drew the deserters. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 753

Categorization

• XREF: Freedom as an inducement for desertion parallels the earlier passage about the British promising slaves freedom to recruit them — the same weapon reversed.