Refouling escaped slaves signaled a retreat from emancipation

Evidence

In October, however, using a series of fights in the town as a pretext, Hédouville effectively deposed Moïse, placing a local black official in charge of the town and an officer named Grandet in charge of the troops of Fort-Dauphin. Moïse and his supporters saw this as an attack against the black army, and even against the regime of liberty itself. Indeed, just as the conflict between Hédouville and Moïse was beginning, Moïse complained that Grandet was capturing fugitive blacks who had escaped from slavery on the Spanish side of the island, and was returning them to their masters on the other side of the border. To Moïse and others this policy portended a dangerous retreat from the principle of emancipation. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 774

Categorization

• XREF: Returns black fugitives to masters prefigures the later French reversal under Leclerc and Napoleon’s re-enslavement policy.