I’ve been listening to a podcast about the Haitian Revolution and I never realized how many different sides there were and how many shifting alliances. It’s not in every war of liberation that the colonial power (France) ships 20,000 guns to one army of freed slaves. While another two armies of revolting slaves are allied with a different colonial power (Spain) and receiving arms from them. Then there the group of whites who are fighting against their own government with a third colonial power (the U.K.). Not to mention the fourth side of rich gens de couleur who have an ambiguous relationship with everyone else and are repressing both whites and former slaves. And that’s just what went on in 1796.