1790-May: The French commander at Cap Français suggested that the Spanish colony could become a staging area for radicals intent on obtaining “complete equal…

1790-May: The French commander at Cap Français suggested that the Spanish colony could become a staging area for radicals intent on obtaining “complete equality” between whites and people of color. This warning reflected the mounting paranoia among the French plantocracy regarding the loss of their racialized power structure. Colonial officials recognized that the fluid border with Spanish Santo Domingo provided a strategic gap for mobile insurgents. The potential for cross-imperial cooperation among the oppressed terrified the ruling class, who relied on black and brown divisions. This period marked the beginning of a coordinated effort to militarize the borders on the island against the spread of revolutionary thought.