Port-au-Prince. Entered by the insurgent army; Résistance à l’Oppression proclaimed

Pétion had left Port-au-Prince with the eleventh and twelfth demi-brigades, marching against the department of the South. Germain Frère, carried away by his zeal, had abandoned his post as commander of the arrondissement to follow him. On learning the formidable character of the revolt, Pétion had resolved to join the army of the South; he took good care not to leave behind him an enterprising man like Germain Frère, who would have opposed his return to Port-au-Prince and would have defended that town vigorously against the insurgents until Dessalines arrived. When he reached Léogane he met General Magloire Ambroise, who, though ill, had had himself carried there to confer with him. He talked with this general for an hour, confided to him that he was going to join the insurgents, and ordered him to go to Jacmel and declare against Dessalines. Continuing his rapid march, he went on ahead of his troops, left General Germain Frère at Grand-Goâve to wait there for the 11th and 12th, crossed the Tapion on 15 October at ten in the morning, and was received with distinction by Lieutenant Solage, who was at the head of the first company of grenadiers of the advance guard of the insurrectionary army. He caught sight of General Yayou, who was hurrying alone to meet him. Yayou came up to him and told him of the conversation he had had with Gérin the day before. Pétion said to him: “Good; let us not lose a moment; let us accept the insurrection, for Dessalines will be upon us, perhaps tomorrow.” He entered Petit-Goâve at noon, fraternized with the insurgents and agreed to leave the chief command of the army to General Gérin. The insurgent troops at once filed off for Port-au-Prince at the double; they still had seventeen leagues to cover. On reaching Grand-Goâve, Gérin was struck by the cold attitude of the two demi-brigades of the West. Germain Frère, surrounded by the corps of the South, pretended to accept the revolution: he was temporizing so as to declare for Dessalines at Port-au-Prince. Gérin had the 15th and 16th take the right, placed in the center the 11th and 12th, whom he mistrusted, and put the 24th in the rear guard. Many armed citizens, women and children followed the army, singing in Creole across the hills and the plain: The devil has broken his chains, let Dessalines be taken! Yet everywhere along their way they respected property. The insurrection was wholly military, and the cultivators very seldom left their work to run to arms. The insurgents reached Léogane at sunset and spent the night there. The next day, the 16th, at daybreak, the 15th, 16th, 11th, 12th, 21st and 24th demi-brigades and three squadrons of dragoons, ten thousand men, set out for Port-au-Prince and arrived there at four in the afternoon. General Germain Frère, who had been arrested on the way, was thrown into prison. The troops of the South at once crossed the town and did not halt until they reached the Saint-Joseph gate. The command of the arrondissement was entrusted to one Dieudonné Charlot, aide-de-camp to Pétion; and the commandant of the town, Bédouet, on whose life an attempt was made, escaped and went into hiding. Gérin placed the 15th and 16th demi-brigades in ambush at the Pont-Rouge; he posted the 21st and 24th at the Saint-Joseph gate, and the 11th and 12th remained in the center of the town under Pétion’s eye.

The insurgents, not doubting the success of their undertaking and frightening the timid spirits of the inhabitants of Port-au-Prince with their audacity, at once drew up the following document, entitled Resistance to Oppression.