Insurgents freely mixed royalist and Republican ideological symbols

Evidence

Evocations of the king did not imply a rejection of the language of Republicanism. By mid-1791, despite the increasing radicalization of events in France, the country was still nominally a constitutional monarchy, not a republic, and many did not see the Rights of Man and the authority of the king as mutually exclusive. The rumored decree discussed at the meeting of August 14, after all, was said to have been passed by the king and the National Assembly. Later in 1791, Biassou wrote of his readiness to “serve his king, the nation, and its representatives.” Such ideological syncretism continued in Saint-Domingue even after the break between the Republic and the royalty was accomplished in France. In early 1793 one insurgent leader named Joseph flew a tricolor flag decorated with three fleur-delis, freely mixing Republican and royalist symbols. Later that year the Republican commissioner Léger Félicité Sonthonax recalled that some insurgents who had been recruited to the Republican side had proposed to make him “king in the name of the Republic” as a way of ending the war against their enemies. But when the conflict between republicanism and royalty finally became a clear conflict between slavery and freedom, many—though not all—former slaves threw in their lot with the Republic. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 367

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the syncretic political creativity also seen in C.L.R. James’s reading of the revolution’s ideological flexibility.