[3] Repressive laws passed by the British toward French Catholics, between 1784 and 1795, increasingly prevented free blacks from participating in the public affairs of the colony.
[3] In February 1787, Cavelan was arrested under a law passed the previous year, which required her to show evidence of her status as a "free coloured" to the authorities in the capital, St. George's.
When the law was passed, she saw no reason to travel the fourteen miles from her home to the capital to register her free status, as the legal intent was ostensibly to curtail vagabonds.
[8] The law supposedly applied to all free coloureds but was typically enforced only upon women, as a means of discouraging miscegenation and reinforcing white superiority.
[2] Fédon used his network, contacting Joseph Verdet, who had served as best man at their wedding and François Philip, who was a wealthy white planter, to vouch for her status.
John Hay, the acting justice of the peace, accepted their oaths and released Cavelan after several weeks of incarceration,[1] issuing her a certificate of freedom.
They simultaneously bought the Belvidere Estate, a cacao and coffee plantation from James Campbell, "a Senior Member of the Council and former Acting Governor" of the colony.
[3] The appointment of the ultra-Protestant planter, Ninian Home, as Lieutenant Governor in 1793, ensured that none of the colonists of French descent would be allowed to participate in the Legislative Assembly.
By the time the agents reached Grenada, a revolt was already well-organized, with Fédon as the leader of the insurgents, which included free coloureds, slaves and maroons.
[12] Taking the British by surprise, the rebels quickly captured Governor Home on 2 March[13] and within two days had forty-three prisoners secured at Belvidere.