These forces, camped in Pajarito, (present-day Villa Duarte), was initially indecisive about the events of the time, since a large part of the population was committed to the patriots.
[4] On March 1, 1844, two days after the proclamation of Dominican independence by the Trinitarios at Puerta del Conde, Battalion Commander Esteban Pou revealed suspicion about an alleged rumor that the leading government would reimpose slavery.
They devised a plan to rebel in response to this, but the captains had been extracted by Tomás Bobadilla and Manuel Jimenes, whom were commissioned by President Francisco del Rosario Sánchez to confront them.
General Juan Pablo Duarte and his supporters won the collaboration of Basora, who was convinced that the return of slavery was inevitable with the impending French invasion.
After this, Santana often looked for a pretext to detach Basora to the fields of the South; but days of truce followed one another, and he was brought to the plaza again, as less dangerous than leaving him quartered in that vast and sparsely populated region.
When the imprisonment and trial of Minister José Joaquín Puello took place, the government took the necessary precautions, promptly sending infantry and cavalry troops to the city from Baní and El Seibo, and mobilizing the Civic Guard, formed in front of the arsenal to prevent reprisals from his supporters.
The African Battalion, while apparently prepared to act, was ultimately repressed from taking action, while the entire city, with its traffic of armed people, was already in full mobilization.