Louverture secretly prepared for war while publicly denying invasion fears

Evidence

Louverture was receiving fragments of information about the Leclerc expedition, and even as he publicly expressed disbelief that France would attack him, he began preparing for war. He increased the size of his army, doing so according to one report by pressing individuals who had recently arrived in the colony—including many creole whites returning from Europe—into service on the pretext that they did not have their required “security cards.” With the addition of these new recruits, he had 23,000, and perhaps up to 30,000, regular troops under his command by early 1802. He also had at his disposal local militias numbering 10,000.25 Louverture sought to make sure he could depend on his officers in case war broke out. After his execution of Moïse he deported several officers whose loyalties he suspected, replacing them with “military leaders whose devotion and fidelity” to his regime were “indisputable.” Among them were Dessalines, who commanded in the west and the south, Maurepas at Port-de-Paix, Christophe at Le Cap, and Sans-Souci at Grande-Rivière on the northern plain. He ordered commanders in coastal towns not to allow any warships, of whatever nation, to enter the ports without his permission. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 924

Categorization

• XREF: Preparatory contradiction — public denial while arming — connects to the pattern of leaders who must calm their own population’s panic while readying for a conflict they know is coming.