The white assembly’s refusal to arm free-coloreds drove them into the enemy camp

Evidence

Since many of them had served in the militia and in the pursuit of maroons in the maréchaussée, the free-coloreds indeed seemed the ideal soldiers for fighting the insurgents. Although there were some among the insurgent camps, many free-coloreds had already shown their willingness to combat the insurrection. In the first days of the uprising a group of free-coloreds in Le Cap had formed a troop to fight the rebels. During the attack on the Gallifet plantation, the first to enter the camp were “the free mulattoes and negroes, chiefly mounted.” Nevertheless, the assembly rejected the interventions of the veteran officers, deferring any discussion of the status of the free-coloreds until after the insurrection was defeated. Having successfully held the free-coloreds at bay through violence in Saint-Domingue and lobbying in Paris, they were unwilling to relent, even in the dramatic situation that surrounded them. “One day,” Rouvray warned them, “the pitying laughs with which you greet the important truths I share with you will turn to tears of blood.” — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 403

Categorization

• XREF: An echo of the wider revolutionary pattern: ruling assemblies refusing to expand the franchise in crisis, which fuels a larger coalition against them.