Urban slaves seized weapons amid colonial factional warfare

Evidence

As Galbaud’s followers spread out through Le Cap there was chaos in the city. The prisons were opened, releasing hundreds of slaves “captured in the battles against the insurgents.” Many of these freed prisoners, along with other slaves in Le Cap, managed to obtain rifles and other weapons— according to one account, free-coloreds distributed weapons to domestics from stashes in their houses, while many later accused the commissioners of having ordered the distribution of guns to the urban slaves—and some began fighting Galbaud’s troops. Random killing, looting, and fires soon followed. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 541