Did you know that #Poles were considered #black for a moment in time? After #Napoleon sent some 5200 poles to #Haiti in 1802, 4000 quickly died of yellow fever, but those remaining were enthralled by their 'enemy'. To the Poles, the Haitians fought for the same things they were missing: freedom from oppression. Consequently, some 500 would join the Haitians against the French forces. Feeling like they shared the burden of tyranny with those new Polish friends, the first Haitian emperor, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, declared the Poles "NOIR" (black) after Haiti's independence. He had been inspired to the move by Haitian historian Louis Boisrond-Tonnerre, who had called the Poles "the white negroes of Europe". #history