1791, March–September: (The Internal Collapse and the Concordat of the West): During the summer of 1791, the whites of the West and Cul-de-Sac mirrored the c…
1791, March–September: (The Internal Collapse and the Concordat of the West): During the summer of 1791, the whites of the West and Cul-de-Sac mirrored the chaos of revolutionary France as regular troops mutinied against and murdered the royalist Chevalier Mauduit on March 3. Port-au-Prince fell to the mob while the plantation countryside remained loyal to the Crown, leading to a “concordat” alliance between white and mulâtre landowners against white revolutionaries. On August 20, 1791, an armed clash at Nerette between mulâtres and white planters forced the gens de couleur to retreat to Trou Cayman. Led by Louis-Jacques Bauvais and Alexandre Pétion, the mulâtre forces successfully repulsed a French column at Pernier, forcing the whites to negotiate. However, this fragile peace was annulled on September 24, 1791, when the National Assembly in Paris reversed its stance and revoked political rights for mulâtres.