Haiti: La Marseillaise and Polish soldiers
anecdote · historical/Haitian Revolution ·
retold in 9 talks
When Napoleon's army approached the Haitian revolutionary forces to re-enslave them, the black freed slaves were singing La Marseillaise. Thousands of Polish soldiers in the French army, recognizing the song, asked themselves if they were on the right side, and switched sides.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 8
“when they come closer, you know what they recognized... the black freed slaves were singing La Marseillaise”
“And hundreds of Polish soldiers broke down. They said my God are we on the right side? And they changed sides.”
“when they approached more they saw the rebels, the Blacks are singing Marseillaise... The French soldiers said 'Wait a minute, are we here fighting on the right side?' They changed sides”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
contents · one story, 3 jobsuses
universalism
×4
concrete universality
×2
universality of struggle
×1
Its cast and sources
populated by
Toussaint Louverture5Napoleon6Joe Slovo1Reinhold Niebuhr1Robert Fisk1Andrey Vyshinsky1Polybius1Lin Biao1
alongside works
Every retelling 8
When Napoleon's army approached the Haitian revolutionary forces to re-enslave them, the black freed slaves were singing La Marseillaise. Thousands of Polish soldiers in the French army, recognizing the song, asked themselves if they were on the right side, and switched sides., illustrating revolutionary universalism,violence and liberation,colonial exploitation
Napoleon's Polish troops, approaching the black rebel army in Haiti, expect primitive tribal songs but instead hear the Marseillaise, hundreds break ranks and switch sides, recognizing they are on the wrong side., illustrating universality of struggle,Haitian Revolution,universality
40:46 The Legacy of the French Revolution w/ Slavoj Zizek on Bastille Day | Jacobin Show2021-07-14 · 1:47:12
Polish soldiers in Napoleon's army approaching Haitian rebel forces expected tribal singing but heard the Marseillaise; realizing they were fighting on the wrong side, they defected and joined the Black rebels, for Žižek the most sublime proof that the Haitian Revolution universalized the French one., illustrating repetition,world-historic event,more European than we Europeans
Napoleon's Polish soldiers sent to crush the Haitian rebellion hear the slaves singing La Marseillaise and ask themselves if they are on the right side, then join the slaves., illustrating universalism and particularity,determinate negation
30:07 Slavoj Zizek: COVID, Tech Billionaires, Racism, and So On — 2021 Interview2021-01-16 · 1:22:13
When Napoleon's army (with Polish soldiers) approached the black army in Haiti, they heard singing, expected primitive African songs, and found the black army singing the Marseillaise, the Poles switched sides, and were later spared when whites were killed., illustrating concrete universality,cultural appropriation
When Napoleon's army approached Haitian black rebels, they heard wild singing, expecting tribal songs, they discovered it was La Marseillaise. Polish soldiers, realizing they were on the wrong side, defected to the Haitian rebels., illustrating universalism versus Eurocentrism,emancipatory universalism,French Revolution and Haiti