The conflict hinged on whether metropolitan or colonial authority would govern Saint-Domingue

Evidence

The question at the heart of the Villatte affair was not racial but political: What role would metropolitan authorities have in Saint-Domingue? … Villatte and other free-colored leaders, educated and wealthy, saw themselves as the logical inheritors of colonial power. They were capable of commanding the army, of overseeing the administration, and of rebuilding the plantations. They were frustrated in their ambitions by the actions of Laveaux and Perroud and ultimately turned against them, seeking a bigger political and economic role in the colony. Louverture’s intervention, meanwhile, was also an expression of his broader ambitions. His rescue of Laveaux was a strategic move that both ridded him of a political competitor who had undermined his authority, and indebted the governor to him. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 701

Categorization

• XREF: The metropolitan-vs-colonial authority tension recurs across Atlantic revolutions and connects to Louverture’s later maneuvers with Sonthonax and General Hédouville.