Policing slaves by free coloreds deepened the rift between the two groups.

Evidence

The service of free people of color in such units obviously cultivated tension and distrust between them and the slaves. It also strengthened the case that the only way to prevent a slave insurrection would be to assure the loyalty of the free people of color by granting them rights. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 241

Categorization

• XREF: This internal rift — free coloreds coercing slaves — is foundation for the later revolutionary fractures when free coloreds and slaves sometimes fought each other.
• SEED: The coerced-collaborator dynamic (enslaved maréchaussée men earning liberty by capturing runaways) could support an essay on how colonial regimes weaponized one oppressed group against another.