September 1793 · Northern Province Theater
September 1793
Spain, at war with revolutionary France, invaded Saint-Domingue from the east (Spanish Santo Domingo) in 1793 and recruited Black rebel leaders — including Toussaint Bréda — to fight under the Spanish flag with promises of freedom. Britain, also at war with France and eager to seize the colony's wealth, landed 900 troops at Jérémie in September 1793 and quickly took Port-au-Prince. By the end of 1793, French authority had essentially collapsed — British forces held the south and west, Spanish-backed Black armies held much of the north, and French planters were collaborating with both foreign powers to restore some form of the old order. The French republican commissioners, desperate, made their fateful gamble: they abolished slavery.
Commanders