The tricolor flag was reframed in Saint-Domingue as symbolizing racial unity against royalist Spain.

Evidence

“General Liberty has just been proclaimed in the island,” an elated insurgent allied to the Republic, Bramante Lazzary, announced to his “brothers in revolt” in the north. They must all swear loyalty to France and “march under its flag,” the Republican tricolor, whose red, white, and blue symbolized the “reunion of the three colors.” “Our flag makes clear that our liberty depends on three colors: black, mulatto, and white; we are fighting for these three colors.” All the races of Saint-Domingue were to form “one family” and fight those who “are against our liberty.” Against the “aristocrats and the Spanish” who flew the white flag of royalism, who wanted “only the white,” and who hoped for a return to the “old order,” all should rally and proclaim: “No, we are French,” and “we want to live free or die.” — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 564

Categorization

• XREF: Inverts the standard symbolic meaning of the French tricolor; connects to how revolutionary symbols are redeployed locally.