![img-12.jpeg](img_ref_13)  
Figure 2. Decade-by-decade breakdown of revolts on slave ships.
Source: Thiébaut, 2020.  
Most revolts occurred when the vessel concerned was still off the Malagasy coast, as was the case with the transatlantic slave trade, where 62.8 per cent of revolts happened off the African coast and 22.5 per cent broke out on the high seas (Eltis and Richardson, 2010, p. 190). According to Hooper (2010, pp. 135-136), time was a critical factor in revolts: the longer the time spent at sea, the higher the risk of a revolt. Le Gentil de La Galaisière (1781, vol. IV, pp. 97-112) observes that, on the Lys, the commander decided to remove the shackles from the enslaved people while land was still in sight. The captives had planned to subdue the French by beating them with billycans and then to escape by canoe. However, one captive alerted the commander and the revolt was soon quashed. On the Julie, just a few days after leaving Madagascar, the captives spotted the Great Island, but in order to prevent 'any ideas of desertion occurring to the enslaved people, I agreed with my fellow officers that they should be told that it was the Isle of Bourbon' (Cunat, Memorandum, s.d.n.l. ANOM, COL, E/101, s.f.).  
Revolts do not seem to have occurred more frequently in certain regions or during certain decades, and significant gaps in the sources must be taken into account. However, it is interesting to note that, between 1790 and 1793, six revolts on French slaving vessels were recorded. The reasons behind them are unclear, and they are not believed to bear any connection with the revolutionary movement in France. It is possible that the wreck of the Françoise at Matatana in 1792 inspired the idea of insurrection among captives on the Mananzary and the Constance Adèle, which were passing through the same region the following year. This was also true of the Vautour in Morondava during the 1720s (Bialuschewski, 2011, pp. 87-101).