Fighting for Slavery

The Polish military painter January Suchodolski (1797-1875) depicts here a very problematic episode of the Napoleonic wars. Many exiled Poles served Napoleon as soldiers, but when the Emperor made peace with Austria, Russia and Prussia he wanted to rid himself of these problematic allies. So he sent them in 1801 to Haiti to suppress the slave revolt there. So the Poles, who once fought for their freedom ended as mercenaries of French slaveholders. Most of them perished in that absurd and cruel war.

Polish troops on Haiti