lonial assembly was
chosen, and did in miniature what the National Assembly undertook for
all France. It controlled royal officers and troops, attempted to
reorganize the administrative system and the courts, and even opened
the ports to products specifically excluded by a royal ordinance. The
question of the status of the free blacks had reached an acute stage.
As property holders their interests were identical with those of the
whites, provided the whites did not exclude them from a share in the
civil conquests of the French Revolution. The National Assembly
finally gave to the colonies an organization similar to the local
administrative system of France except that it delegated executive
powers to a governor. The constitution of the colony, once approved by
the national legislature, could not be changed without the demand or
consent of the local assemblies. To this local legislature was given
the responsibility for the making of laws on all matters except trade
and defense. If the governor did not withhold his consent in order
that the authorities at Paris should first be consulted, laws could be
put into force provisionally before they received the final sanction
of the National Assembly and the Crown.

The free people of color petitioned the National Assembly for
political rights and privileges in 1789. On May 15, 1791, on the
question of the free blacks, the Assembly passed a decree declaring
that people of color, born of free parents, were entitled to all the
privileges of French citizens. When the news reached the island the
mulattoes and free Negroes rejoiced. The whites were opposed to any
such measure. Thereupon the governor of the island delayed
promulgating the decree while he communicated with the home
government. The free people of color were angered and civil strife
followed. The mulattoes took up arms against the whites. To complicate
matters, the slaves rose in insurrection in August, 1791. The whites,
finding themselves in a perilous situation, decided to accede to the
demands of the free people of color, who in turn promised to combine
with the whites to suppress the revolt. Meanwhile, in the last days of
the Assembly the friends of the planters succeeded in having the whole
matter referred to the colonial assemblies. The people of color,
mulattoes and free blacks, fled to arms again and joined the slaves,
leading bands of them against the whites or remained indifferent in
actual warfare. Then follo