1792-July: Three volunteer army battalions prepared at the French port of La Rochelle to depart for the Caribbean to suppress the ongoing slave rebellion in …

1792-July: Three volunteer army battalions prepared at the French port of La Rochelle to depart for the Caribbean to suppress the ongoing slave rebellion in Saint-Domingue. While these soldiers were loyal to the French Republic and the ideals of the 1789 Revolution, their primary mission was to re-establish colonial order in the name of the National Assembly. The slave revolution in Saint-Domingue had lasted almost a full year by the time these troops massed for departure. Their mobilization highlighted the stark tension between metropolitan revolutionary slogans and the maintenance of the colonial slave regime.