France began arming insurgent slaves against their own colonial masters in 1793.

Evidence

In February 1793 the colonial minister suggested to Sonthonax that he offer freedom to those insurgents who would fight for France. The commissioners did so, organizing slaves who had been mobilized by whites in the Western and Southern Provinces into “Legions of Equality,” but at first they had little success recruiting allies from among the insurgents in the north. Eventually, however, the Republic outdid its enemies, destroying the foundations of the old Saint-Domingue in order to save the colony for France. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 532

Categorization

• XREF: This early French turn to emancipatory recruitment foreshadows the later full abolition decree and parallels how revolutionaries elsewhere militarize oppressed populations.