Seven Years War

The Seven Years' War (1756-1763) was a global imperial conflict that mattered for Saint-Domingue through its effects on blockade, provisioning strain, military reorganization, and postwar reform. Burnard and Garrigus show that the blockade and spoiled provisions during the war were central to the 1757-1758 mortality and poisoning panic associated with Mackandal — it was not Mackandal killing thousands but bad food accidentally poisoned through spoilage during the blockades. The postwar period saw militia reform that downgraded the military honor of free people of color, a line running directly into the 1769 militia revolt and longer degradation of civic standing before 1791.