Patriots, Royalists, and Terrorists in the West Indies : University of Toronto Press : 9781487503956 : 1487503954 : 06 Feb 2019 : "Patriots, Royalists, and Terrorists in the West Indies examines the complex revolutionary struggle in Martinique and Guadeloupe from 1789 to 1802. The arrival of tricolor cockades - a badge symbol of the French Revolution - and news from Paris in 1789 undermined the royal governors' authority, unleashed bitter conflict between white factions, and encouraged the aspirations of free people of color to equality and black slaves to freedom. This book provides a detailed narrative of the shifting political developments, and analyses the roles of planter resentment of metropolitan control, social and racial tensions, and the ambiguity of revolutionary principles in a colonial setting. Recent scholarship has tended to over-emphasize the colonies' agency, and to accentuate the conflict between masters and slaves, while downplaying metropolitan influences. In contra