Planters mobilized to block free-colored representation in the National Assembly

Evidence

But here, as in the earlier antislavery campaign, initial advances were followed by defeat. The Club Massiac, most of whose members were committed to refusing any concessions to the free people of color, counterattacked and managed to isolate the reformers in the National Assembly. Although Grégoire forced a request for free-colored representation through the credentials committee, which he chaired, opponents shouted down attempts to put their recommendation to a vote. Planters and their allies published pamphlets that argued against the granting of rights to freecoloreds, and for strict limits on metropolitan intervention in the colonies. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 285

Categorization

• XREF: The pattern of ‘initial advances followed by defeat’ recurs throughout this book’s arc—each concession generating a planters’ backlash that radicalizes the next round of demands.