Louverture deliberately courted returning white planters as allies

Evidence

In early September Louverture called on émigrés in the United States to return to Saint-Domingue, where, like the “prodigal son” returning to their father, they would be pardoned. Among those who responded was a wealthy planter named Bernard Borgella, who had been the mayor of Port-au-Prince during the turbulent early years of the Revolution. The returned planter, a longtime proponent of political and economic autonomy from France, would help shape the black general’s policies. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 794

Categorization

• SEED: Louverture’s alliance with returned planters is an angle on revolutionary pragmatism — courting former enemies to build an autonomous state — that contrasts with rigid revolutionary ideology.