Inciting slave rebellions in the British Carribean: a viable strategy for Revolutionary France?

OTL France went through an eight year period in which slavery had been banned, before Napoleon reestablished it in 1802. I was initially thinking of a POD in which Napoleon opted not to restore slavery, but I don't think that's necessary- 8 years should be more then enough time for someone in the French leadership to propose taking Britain down a notch by sponsoring slave rebellions.

So my question is: do the French have any obvious incentive to not try this? Are they likely to succeed if they do?
 
They theoretically could as long as they can reach British possessions in the Caribbean. The Royal Navy won't make it easy.
 
So my question is: do the French have any obvious incentive to not try this? Are they likely to succeed if they do?

They did try it. Grenada and St. Vincent both had French-backed rebellions in 1795-96; the Grenadian one came close to success, and the Black Carib revolt on St. Vincent might have done better if the Caribs' leader hadn't been killed at the battle of Dorsetshire Hill. There were uprisings on Dominica and in British Guiana as well that may have had French involvement. However, the French Revolutionary authorities in the Caribbean could only give limited support to the rebellions in the face of the RN, so they ultimately failed in wresting control of these islands from Britain.

I did post a thread a while back involving more successful slave rebellions in the British Caribbean in the 1790s, but had to do some handwaving to make it work.
 
Actually, Napoleonian decision is a bit more complex than reestablish slavery for the kicks of it : it was less about re-introducing slavery than acknowledging that its aboliton wasn't appliable. It never really was entierely done in Antilles, due to either poor enforcement due to autonomist policies (La Réunion) or British occupation (as in Martinique), and if slavery legalisation was done a bit differently in regions as Guadeloupe or Guyane, it covers similar grounds.
The only french colony where slavery wasn't re-established was the western part of Saint-Domingue (Haiti), as due to the situation, abolition of slavery had direct application.

When it becomes clear that France can't do s**t about Caribbeans, if colons continue to either go more and more independent, if former slaves and freemen continue to go more and more independent, there's no much room : colons managed to keep most of the real economical and political power, and any french affirmation of power is likely to pay lip-service to colons especially when plantation economy was what made the interests of Antilles.

We could imagine a radical France (let's say that jacobins from the Club of Pantheon manage to secure their electoral victories shomehow) pushing for such edict this late (@Jonathan Edelstein pointed it was attempted before), but not only it would have zero applicability (less that Royal Navy would intervene, Royal Navy was already there), but would definitely cut any chance of French recover of the region.
Colons will pull an autonomy protected by Britain (some sort of Britto-Antillais commonwealth), while Saint-Domingue could possibly be as successful against Britain that it was against France (I doubt Britain would have nearly the same incitative to pull an expedition there, tough) but becomes a de facto largely autonomous region.
 
This was a modus operandi of Dutch, French, and English Privateers for over a century. Slaves and natives were vital sources of intel and manpower to anti-Spanish pirates and forces. Pirates for the most part used sloops & pinnacle that can easily outrun warships and sail into waters that larger ships could not, the downside is that they need a viable home port to provision and sell their loot in; therefore something short of a full on war will do as there will be political protection for the pirate home base.

Its viable sure, but slaves can't hold an island for long without French forces. France however couldn't beat the British navy so the best you have is french pirates supported by slaves.
 
They did try it. Grenada and St. Vincent both had French-backed rebellions in 1795-96; the Grenadian one came close to success, and the Black Carib revolt on St. Vincent might have done better if the Caribs' leader hadn't been killed at the battle of Dorsetshire Hill. There were uprisings on Dominica and in British Guiana as well that may have had French involvement. However, the French Revolutionary authorities in the Caribbean could only give limited support to the rebellions in the face of the RN, so they ultimately failed in wresting control of these islands from Britain.

I did post a thread a while back involving more successful slave rebellions in the British Caribbean in the 1790s, but had to do some handwaving to make it work.
Would a rebellion on Jamaica have a better chance of success, in your opinion? Given it's larger size and proximity to Haiti(if either of those count for anything). If nothing else I'd expect that it'd be more difficult for the RN to prevent incursions given it's much longer coastline.
 
Colons will pull an autonomy protected by Britain (some sort of Britto-Antillais commonwealth), while Saint-Domingue could possibly be as successful against Britain that it was against France (I doubt Britain would have nearly the same incitative to pull an expedition there, tough) but becomes a de facto largely autonomous region.

Didn't the British invade Saint-Domingue OTL?
 
Would a rebellion on Jamaica have a better chance of success, in your opinion? Given it's larger size and proximity to Haiti(if either of those count for anything). If nothing else I'd expect that it'd be more difficult for the RN to prevent incursions given it's much longer coastline.

The Second Maroon War did occur on Jamaica in 1795, but it was mainly defensive (all the Maroon wars were) and took place in a mountainous area where French aid would have been difficult. A more general slave revolt would be necessary to seriously threaten British rule.

Hmmm. By 1795, the Haitian revolution had entered a phase during which Toussaint was cooperating with France against British invasion. Maybe, if an opportunity presented itself, Toussaint might try to take the war behind British lines by inciting the slaves in Jamaica, but given how thinly he was stretched at the time and given that the British held the port cities, how well would he be able to exploit such an opportunity?
 
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