1805–1806: (The Unraveling of the Imperial Court and the Rising Discontent): Dessalines proffered his daughter Célimène to Pétion as a political marriage, bu…

1805–1806: (The Unraveling of the Imperial Court and the Rising Discontent): Dessalines proffered his daughter Célimène to Pétion as a political marriage, but Pétion’s dilemma was compounded by the hidden knowledge that the girl was already pregnant by one of the imperial aides-de-camp, who subsequently paid for his transgression with his brains blown out. Pétion finally told Dessalines he was not of a mind to marry anyone, a reply that sufficed but left neither man in doubt about what it implied for the fragile noir-mulâtre alliance. Other tensions beyond race were pulling the regime asunder: the slave-master’s whip was forbidden, but Dessalines scourged the cultivateurs with the liane and kokomakak instead, declaring with personal knowledge that cultivators “can be controlled only by fear of punishment or death.” (7) Surrounded like a sultan by mistresses of all colors, the Emperor claimed the droit du seigneur in every town while the economy stagnated, sugar production declined, public funds lined private pockets, and the army went unpaid, ill-equipped, and nearly unclothed. The discontents of generals proved more dangerous than those of soldiers: Christophe was offended by the ludicrous scenes at court, Pétion, Geffrard, and Férou had longstanding grounds of color and conviction to support their growing disaffection, and at Port-de-Paix, Capoix-la-Mort nursed equal resentment against both the Emperor and his old rival Henry Christophe.