DizzyFOF Reacts to How 500 Poles Became Black 🌍🤯

Added: 2026-05-14

[00:00:00]Here to FOF family, Polish people. They got another uh They got another uh day of learning today. We got some more history. Um This is by a channel named History Abridged. Um they do like a lot of like, you know, like like the name is History Abridged. They do a lot of short-form content that kind of make history digestible.

[00:00:20]All around the whole globe. I checked their channel out just a little bit before I got this video. They do a little bit of everywhere, so y'all want like history reacts to be a part of the channel, let me know. But this one is in particular to Poland. Oh [ __ ] Oh [ __ ] This video is named How 500 Poles Became Black. Oh [ __ ] Oh We're going to learn a little bit more history today with that we did not learn coming up in school.

[00:00:44]Hopefully, you know, you guys find this valuable. Hopefully, you guys learn. If you didn't learn, if you already knew this, teach me something in the comments. You know, I'm always down to learn stuff. I really outside of this uh YouTube uh journey, I'm I'm a big science head and history head, so I really like things like that.

[00:01:02]Um and I guess you can count geography, too, but yeah.

[00:01:05]Like, comment, subscribe. 26 is ours.

[00:01:08]Let's learn.

[00:01:09]Hopefully, this brings up like Napoleon Bonaparte and things like that cuz I know the general that worked for him. He like He something like he turned himself in for like 30 mil or something like that or or some something crazy. He might bring him up here, the general, the one general. Y'all remember his name, let me know. These men are black.

[00:01:24]As you might have noticed, they are also very white. What happened? What's going on? Just why? The short answer is that these guys from Poland decided to fight in one of the ugliest wars of all time for the sake of Haitian independence and were awarded with honorary blackness, but I think that rate >> It's his voice that's getting me. They were awarded with honorary blackness.

[00:01:46]>> [laughter] >> He's funny. I'm going to check his channel out some more.

[00:01:50]>> It raises more questions than it answers. So, let's see if we can find a little more >> that Napoleon Bonaparte. hundred >> right around the end of the Middle Ages into the Renaissance era, Poland was a great power on par with England, Spain, France, Germany, you name it. The Polish government was also way ahead of its time in giving power to a parliament instead of the king. But, being one of the first constitutional monarchies in Europe, the Polish parliament had a few bugs to work out. Poland was so incredibly committed to the idea that all men, excuse me, all noblemen are created equal that every single member of parliament was trusted with the nuclear option. Any member of parliament at any time could utter the phrase, "I do not allow it." And whatever law was being debated would immediately fail.

[00:02:39]And also, the entire >> if I say I want I want candy to be free, you could say, "Nah, I don't want it free."

[00:02:47]And we just go back and forth. Six, seven. No.

[00:02:54]Be serious, Drizzy. This is history.

[00:02:57]Be [ __ ] serious. Are you [ __ ] for real?

[00:03:00]Lock in.

[00:03:02]Just had to give myself a pep talk.

[00:03:04]I'm locked in. Here we go. Let me get one more swig. We're good.

[00:03:11]Y'all want to know what this is? Walmart special.

[00:03:16]I only drink like cranberry type drinks, to be honest.

[00:03:20]The parliamentary session was ended. And also, every other law that had been passed in that session was canceled.

[00:03:27]This was a sacred power, and frankly, very stupid. People abused the hell out of this, and the Polish government could literally not do anything unless every single piece of legislation was passed unanimously. All of Poland's neighbors quickly discovered they also could abuse the hell out of this system, because if Poland ever did anything they didn't like, all they had to do was bribe one single MP and >> Right, because it's not like today where it doesn't have to be a unanimous vote.

[00:03:59]It has to be a majority vote these days.

[00:04:02]So, they saying if you got 200 [ __ ] that say they want candy to not be free and you got one [ __ ] they said that wants to be free, y'all are going to have to redo it the whole time. That's ass.

[00:04:15]They could bring the entire Polish government to its knees. Poland was so weak that by the late 1700s, the only people passing laws in Poland were the Russians. The Russian ambassador was literally walking through the Polish capital arresting Polish politicians and nobody could stop him. The people of Poland finally created a second parliament, which was exactly the same as the first parliament, but without the nuclear option, but by then it was too late. As soon as the Polish people started trying to pass reforms, Poland was carved up by its neighbors and the Polish army stood no chance.

[00:04:52]Um, so at the time, I want to say Poland was occupied by three different people because November 11th is Veteran's Day, which I hold dear to me because I am a veteran myself. I don't talk about it a lot, but and I know November 11th is when y'all got independence from Prussia, Russia, and Austria. I do know that much. I do know a little history now.

[00:05:13]Um But yeah, I want to say these are the three different countries represented here: Prussia, Austria, and Russia. Fact check me in the comments. So, now there's no more Poland, but there's still a bunch of Polish soldiers who don't want to fight for the people who just conquered them. They really miss having a representative government and would kill for a chance to liberate Poland. And guess what? France would be very interested in lib- France did colonize Haiti. That's why Creole is French mostly. liberating Poland because thanks to to French Revolution, everyone in Europe is out to get them, and they Little little known fact, I'm Jamaican and my sister's Asian. So, like stuff like this, I kind of already I know the Haiti side of things and the French side, but I want to see how the Poland side ties in. desperately need allies. Also, thanks to the French Revolution, France is fighting for liberty and equality, at least mostly.

[00:06:07]The French Revolution played out a little differently in Haiti. Haiti Let's see.

[00:06:15]Okay.

[00:06:16]Okay.

[00:06:20]is a poor country today, but Haiti in the 1700s was a gold mine. Haiti's sugar exports were worth almost as much as all of the exports from the entire United States of America. But, that sugar export was sustained by slavery on an enormous Correct. Slavery triangle trade, sugarcane, all that [ __ ] Caribbean, all of that. I can I can go down the rabbit hole. scale. Every year, tens of thousands of people were piled [snorts] into ships and taken to Haiti. You don't want to look down there. It's bad. So bad that about 15% of people down there die before they ever see land again.

[00:06:59]But, France keeps bringing in ships full of Africans instead of using the people already enslaved in Haiti. Why? Because thanks to all the yellow fever, 50% of people brought to Haiti as slaves died in Oh, [ __ ] Oh, [ __ ] Damn.

[00:07:19]I like how he presents information.

[00:07:21]If y'all really If y'all want me to start doing like a day to where I have his videos, I I like I like his channel. I'm about to start introducing this if y'all want it. their first year. That statistic alone is a very good reason for people to run away. As if the enslavement wasn't enough.

[00:07:38]>> running? So, the French planters decided to make the punishment for disobedience worse than a 50% chance of death by mosquito. Whippings are just the beginning. The French used burning, castration, and that's after the king passed a bunch of laws saying what you couldn't do to slaves. French Haiti is practically Caribbean Auschwitz, and the French have been running it for a hundred years. So, the French are a little afraid of an uprising considering they're outnumbered by their slaves by what? 10 to 1? And then the French Revolution happens, and the French government declares all people are free and equal. This caused quite a bit of controversy back in Haiti. How is that ambiguous? All people are free and equal. No, all people are free and equal. Anyone who isn't free and equal isn't a person.

[00:08:31]>> That's the caveat. To hell with France.

[00:08:32]Think how much money we could That's the caveat right there because there were already slaves. They're technically they were looking at it like they're technically not even That's the caveat right there. That's the That's the little fine print they used. Make on our own. We would finally be free to treat our slaves however we want. I'm thinking Iron Maidens. I'm thinking acid attacks.

[00:08:53]I reckon we could do that thing where you coat them in honey and lock them in a boat with a bunch of fire ants. The Haitian Revolution began with a slave uprising in 17 >> Imagine sitting in a I've heard of some of these torture treatments before, but imagine going through some of these shits that they used to go through back in the day, like in Greece, Rome, ancient ancient times, basically.

[00:09:15]And until like the 1800s-ish.

[00:09:18]Like all that all that if you [ __ ] up or if you just were on if you just weren't on the right side of things, and you couldn't control that, you was getting some of this treatment.

[00:09:28]But let's talk about that last one.

[00:09:30]Getting coated with some sweet, locked in the boat, probably on a sea, and you just got a million ants all around you.

[00:09:37]You just got to sit there and just take it.

[00:09:39]Oh, [ __ ] Damn. 1791. The rebels believed that the French government would be on their side, what with the freedom and equality and all, but actually, the French government gave citizenship to black Haitians who were already free, ruling that black people had rights except for the ones that didn't. The start of the revolution was a sorted bloody affair, but as the rebels began to organize, they centered around a man named Toussaint Louverture. Louverture was willing to work with the French, even the plantation owners, to rebuild Haiti into a place where all men are >> right here. The white plantation owners said that noise. They're so upset over the free black people being citizens, they ask Britain to pretty please come conquer them so they can continue being hats. Britain says, "Did somebody say hats?" and sends a whole bunch of teenage soldiers to go get yellow fever in the name of autocracy, slavery, and discrimination. After all, the British don't want their captives over in Caribbean Dachau getting any ideas. But there's hope. In order to stop Haiti from falling into British hands, I think this is the general what I was talking about earlier with Napoleon Bonaparte. I think this is him.

[00:10:52]>> the French governor decides to work with Louverture's rebels. He passes a decree abolishing slavery in Haiti, but it's going to take more than that. Louverture knows the governor could reissue slavery tomorrow if he wanted to, so the governor takes the matter to Paris, and in a historic victory for humanity, the French government declared, "Representatives of the French people, until now our decrees of liberty have been selfish and only for ourselves, but today we proclaim it to the universe, and generations to come will glory in this decree. We are proclaiming universal liberty." Slavery was abolished across the French Empire.

[00:11:33]How's that for an olive branch? The governor and the rebels work together to drive out the British and those teenagers died for nothing. Huzzah! Take a minute, hold on to those happy feelings, and kiss them goodbye. We haven't talked about the Poles yet, which means this video is not over. In 1799, Napoleon is in charge of France and he writes a new constitution for the empire, one that is noticeably less raw-raw about human rights and citizenship. In fact, he's very clear that colonies are going to be getting special rules that are different from the way things work in France. To Louverture, who is now the governor of Haiti, that sounds a lot like slavery's coming back. So, in 1801, Louverture says, "Colonies get their own rules.

[00:12:17]Awesome. Here's Haiti's rules. Under no circumstances can slavery come back, and also I'm governor for life." Napoleon is not amused. He sees Louverture's constitution as a call for secession, and the war begins all over again with a whole new cast of characters. To reclaim Haiti, Napoleon sends his general and brother-in-law, Charles Leclerc, and gives him two secret instructions. When Leclerc arrives, Louverture and his army retreat and burn down the city of Le Cap, and Leclerc is surprisingly cool about it. He writes letters to Louverture saying, "No worries, man. You got to do what you got to do. Whenever you're ready to surrender, we've got money and a job all lined up for you."

[00:12:58]That's going to make everything better.

[00:13:00]Though Louverture put up a hell of a fight, including one battle that supposedly degraded into six hours of the French and Haitians beating the life out of each other with their bare hands.

[00:13:11]At a certain point, for reasons that aren't entirely clear to me, Louverture surrenders himself to Leclerc. "You fought with honor, sir. And now I'm going to open my first secret envelope here, and oh, oh, you are going to rot in jail. Boom.

[00:13:28]>> Oh [ __ ] You did all that just to land up in the slammer.

[00:13:38]And he's probably like Oh [ __ ] Oh [ __ ] Damn. While Iosh Louverture was gone, but Leclerc did line up some political appointments for some of the other defectors. Without their leadership, more and more Haitians laid down their arms, and the war is nearly over. But before the war is finished, Leclerc reveals his second secret envelope.

[00:14:00]We're bringing back slavery. Woohoo. Go team. Yeah, so all the other Haitians that had surrendered immediately unsurrender, and the French are shocked that the people who just fought a war to escape slavery are unhappy about being enslaved. Well, if that's how it's going to be, France may as well turn this into an all-out race war. The last thing Leclerc did before dying of yellow fever was to order every black person in the city of Le Cap to be drowned. Mind you, Leclerc was occupying Le Cap, so the only people he succeeded in killing were the ones who were still on his side. The guy who took over after Le Cap, named Rochambeau, was even worse. Rochambeau could make a clansman blush through his hood. He shows up in Haiti and sees all the people being hanged and shot and thrown into the ocean with sacks tied over their heads, and he decides it's time to take things up a notch. War crimes are such a hassle, am I right?

[00:14:59]Don't you wish you could use that time to commit more war crimes? Now you can.

[00:15:04]With my patented fumigational sulphurous baths, you can gas hundreds of POWs at once. Oh [ __ ] Oh [ __ ] This is where it all started.

[00:15:17]On top of inventing the [ __ ] gas chamber, Rochambeau imported 15,000 attack dogs trained to maul anyone who wasn't white. He made the dogs racist.

[00:15:31]And now we can talk about the Poles again. Racist dogs is not what the Polish Legion had signed up for.

[00:15:38]Napoleon didn't even mention that they were being sent in explicitly to enslave an entire country of people. He told them they were just being sent to put down a prison revolt. They joined the French army believing that Napoleon would one day liberate their homeland from oppressors, and now here they were in Haiti doing the oppressing. So a bunch of them just left. I mean, they couldn't get back to Europe, but about 500 or so walked out and fought for the Haitians instead, knowing they might never see their homeland again. It was a very brave and selfless act.

[00:16:10]Unfortunately, their new Haitian commander was also very excited about this whole race war thing. After the French tried to spring slavery on Haiti again, the man who came to lead the Haitian Revolution was named Dessalines.

[00:16:22]He'd fought alongside Toussaint Louverture, but he had a very different way of doing things. Dessalines believed in an eye for an eye, and brother, there were Good cop, bad cop. Type [ __ ] a whole lot of eyes to pay for. He and Rochambeau spent the rest of the war playing tit-for-tat war crimes.

[00:16:40]Rochambeau hanged 500 black people.

[00:16:42]Dessalines found 500 white people and stuck their heads on spikes. Rochambeau had his gas chambers, Dessalines had saws Damn.

[00:16:50]>> and fire. The war itself may have I know this ain't the time to be comical or funny, but would y'all rather get sawed to sleep or gassed to sleep? Oh, [ __ ] Let me know.

[00:17:02]been the least brutal part of the war.

[00:17:04]One observer noted how all the soldiers were really excited for a big battle because it meant they had a chance to get shot and die in a few seconds instead of living long enough to get captured or contract yellow fever.

[00:17:17]Gradually, the war shifted in favor of Dessalines. Rochambeau abandoned the capital city, but about 100 white people had stayed behind to pledge their allegiance to Dessalines and a new baby.

[00:17:28]When Dessalines arrived, they welcomed him as a hero. With a tear in his eye, Dessalines told them, "This kindness, this love, this equality, I did not think it still existed in this world."

[00:17:45]This had better be the last of it. And he hanged them all, even on the Oh, [ __ ] I was not expecting that. Yo, this [ __ ] is mental.

[00:17:56]The war was over. Dessalines' mission wasn't finished. Kill all the whites. We shall have their skin for parchment, their blood for ink, and a bayonet for But I guess at the time, you really couldn't convince him otherwise cuz it's different now, obviously, but Um but at that time, in the 1700s, chad. Chad. What about those whites? But those whites are black. The only exception to Dessalines' policy of racial extermination was the Poles in his army, who were probably feeling really uncomfortable about this whole situation, but they were in way too deep to say anything. So, Dessalines might have turned Haiti into a different kind of dystopia, but at least slavery was abolished once and for all. Until Dessalines forced everybody to work in the plantations again. Oh, [ __ ] Then he got shot.

[00:18:47]>> When he got assassinated, Haiti split in half. The northern half Then it turned into uh Dominican Republic and Haiti eventually.

[00:18:56]>> became a literal monarchy again. And then France came back demanding reparations for the war they lost. And Haiti spent the next 200 years in disorder and poverty. The moral of the story is the Poles and the Haitians just can't catch a break.

[00:19:12]Nah, I really enjoyed this. This was very digestible. Um I might have misspoke about that general. I I've read up on it a long time ago.

[00:19:20]Cuz like I said, my family is very diverse and very culturally rich.

[00:19:25]So uh um it it was a guy I want to say Saline was the general that kind of just gave up and he gave him a bag. But then once the new once the guy came over and gave him the bag, he sent him to jail. I think he just left out that one part.

[00:19:38]But um But yeah, appreciate uh History Abridged. I'll leave a link to his channel in the video in the description. And yeah, y'all let me know how y'all like this because if y'all like the history stuff, I like history.

[00:19:55]We could just go down the rabbit hole just on his channel.

[00:19:58]And we can have a blast.

[00:20:01]F O F on me.

[00:20:02]F O F all three. One, two, three.