To recapture the cash cow colony, Napoleon sent a regiment of the Polish Legions to Haiti in 1802. However, when faced with the devastating defeats suffered by the French campaign, some of the “Polonais” soon changed allegiances and were enthusiastically received by the revolutionaries.
The reason for this enthusiastic reception was the “Black Madonna.” Polish soldiers carried miniature icons of their patron saint and, in the eyes of the Haitians, these were icons of a truly black Madonna – none other than Erzulie herself. Descendants of the “Polonais” still live in Haiti today.