1791, October–November: (Military Warnings and the Burning of Port-au-Prince): Experienced soldiers du Rouvray and Touzard warned the Colonial Assembly in Oc…

1791, October–November: (Military Warnings and the Burning of Port-au-Prince): Experienced soldiers du Rouvray and Touzard warned the Colonial Assembly in October 1791 that 6,000 French troops would be insufficient to stop the “hordes of slaves in revolt”. Touzard argued that only acclimated mulâtre soldiers could successfully hunt the rebels in flying columns, urging the assembly to include them as defenders. On November 22, 1791, mulâtre troops under Bauvais attacked Port-au-Prince, and by the next sunrise, the city was in flames and under a starvation siege. The conflict spread south as André Rigaud blockaded the approaches to the capital and enslavers in the Grand Anse used the people they held captive to fight mulâtres. Amidst this carnage, a Spanish mulâtre known as “Romaine-la-Prophetesse” claimed the voice of God and led marrons on a path of slaughter in the name of the Virgin.