Anita Arnon

There is a spirit of wanting freedom, but there is no organisation behind how you get to that freedom.

No, not at this point.

No, I mean, they're regional militias, you know, led by possibly rich and powerful men who are used to having their say in their particular region or plantation, but they may not be the best at, you know, leading a military force and they're certainly not together.

Well, I mean, it's sort of been noted that they spend as much time fighting each other as they do fighting the empire.

And the reason that they are as divided, apart from the fact that you've got these different people who aren't used to being told what to do, who are leading these military junctures, is that you have also class and racial tensions.

So you have enslaved people or padros, mixed race people, who are sometimes siding or often siding with the royalists because the royalists come in.

And we saw this, did we not, with the British in the American Revolution.

They are promising freedom to the slaves.

They're just saying, you know what?

If you side with us, if you side with the crown, we will grant you your freedom.

These guys who are leading the revolution, they are your slave drivers.

Recognize him.

It's his plantation that you used to work on.

Recognize him.

It's him who's swallowed up your entire family and you've been working for for generations.

Oddly, an enslaved population is siding with the country that demanded the fruits of their labor

Until this point in time.

Right.

Well, it works.

It works because it's a narrative that makes sense.