1802 (The Rhetoric of “Brotherhood”): General Hardy’s correspondence attempted to frame the French invasion as a paternalistic intervention designed to welco…

1802 (The Rhetoric of “Brotherhood”): General Hardy’s correspondence attempted to frame the French invasion as a paternalistic intervention designed to welcome “children led astray” back into the arms of the mother country. He promised that if Christophe surrendered his troops, the French would cease treating them as enemies and instead embrace them as “brothers.” Hardy characterized Christophe’s current service to Louverture as being a “stepping-stone to an usurper,” suggesting that the black leadership was being manipulated by outside interests. The letter offered a personal guarantee of safety for a meeting at Vaudreuil, emphasizing that the French government sought a “reparation of evils.” This strategy sought to undermine the unity of the Haytian resistance by offering individual amnesty in exchange for national submission.