banned by the regime. A passive resistance to Vichy and its local representatives was organised from 1940 to 1943. More than 4,000 French West Indians left their islands, at the risk of their life, to join the nearby British colonies. Then they rallied the Free French Forces, first by undertaking military training in the United States, Canada or Great Britain. At the same time, Fort Napoléon became a political jail where the dissidents were locked. The Saintois boarded their traditional Saintoise to the Guadeloupean coast to pick up the volunteers for dissidence departure. Then, they were sailed through Dominica Passage, avoiding the cruisers and patrol boats of Admiral Robert. In March 1943, the French Guyanese rebelled against the regime and rallied the allies. French West Indians followed the movement and in April, May and June 1943, a civil movement of resistance took weapons and rebelled against Vichy's administration. In Martinique, the marines of Fort-de-France also rebelled against Admiral Robert. With shortages from the embargo making life more and more difficult, Admiral Robert sent to the Americans his will to capitulate, seeking the end of the blockade, on 30 June 1943. On 3 July 1943, the American admiral John Howard Hoover came to Martinique and on 8 July 1943, the American government required an unconditional surrender to the authority of the French Committee of National Liberation and offered asylum to Admiral Robert. On 15 July 1943, Governor Constant Sorin and Admiral Robert were relieved of their duties by Henri Hoppenot, ambassador of Free French Forces, and the French Antilles also joined the allies. Admiral Robert left the island the same day for the United States. Many of the dissidents were sent to the North African fronts and participated in Operation Dragoon beside the Allies. On 19 March 1946, the President of the Provisional Government of the French Republic promulgated the law of departmentalisation, which set up the colonies of Guadeloupe, Martinique, La Réunion and French Guiana, as Overseas Departments. From then on, les Saintes, Marie-Galante, La Désirade, Saint-Barthélemy and the French side of Saint-Martin were joined, as municipalities, with Guadeloupe island into the new department of Guadeloupe. The colonial status up until then was replaced by a policy of assimilation to the rest of the metropolitan territory. In 1957, in the country's municipal elections, the mysterious death of the mayor of Terre-de-Haut, Théodore Samson, while he was in the office of