1793-1794: Armed troops and militia in Santo Domingo spent a significant portion of their time pursuing mobile bands of people who had escaped slaver

1793-1794: Armed troops and militia in Santo Domingo spent a significant portion of their time pursuing mobile bands of people who had escaped slavery and those the authorities called vagabonds. These groups, encouraged by the example of the French Revolution, roamed between territories raiding plantations and engaging in disruptive activities. One captured rebel turned out to have escaped long before from a Spanish plantation and was interrogated for intelligence on the French colony. Spanish officials became increasingly dependent on these mobile black subjects as providers of information regarding developments across the border. This reliance on the masterless for intelligence highlighted the state’s inability to control the flow of people and ideas in a revolutionary landscape.