1791, May 15–August 9: (The Legislative Collision of Paris and Saint-Domingue): Shocked by the brutal execution of Ogé and Chavannes, the French National Ass…

1791, May 15–August 9: (The Legislative Collision of Paris and Saint-Domingue): Shocked by the brutal execution of Ogé and Chavannes, the French National Assembly decreed on May 15, 1791, that gens de couleur born to free parents were admitted to colonial assemblies. This decision prompted Saint-Domingue’s colonial delegates to stalk out of the Chamber and led the colonists to elect their own all-white assembly, which convened at Léogâne on August 9, 1791. Moreau de Saint-Méry warned that if the enslaved population saw mulâtres invoke French power to achieve equality, France would lose all hope of preserving the colony. Enslavers remained adamant about protecting their “indispensable prejudice” regarding the mulâtres and their legal right to hold people as property. This grim logic trapped white supremacists in a conflict that would soon see the North in flames.