André Rigaud

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André Rigaud

André Rigaud (1761-1811) was the leading mulatto military leader during the Haïtian Revolution. Among his protégés were Alexandre Pétion and Jean-Pierre Boyer, both future presidents of Haïti.

1 The revolutionary
2 With Leclerc and death
3 Trivia
4 Notes
5 References
6 External links

[edit] The revolutionary

A successor to Vincent Ogé and Julien Raimond as champion of the interests of free mulatos in Saint-Domingue (as colonial Haïti was known), Rigaud aligned himself with revolutionary France and with an interpretation of the Rights of Man that ensured the civil equality of all free people.

Rigaud's army established itself during the mid-1790s as a leading force in the West and South, and he was given authority to govern by Étienne Polverel, one of the French Civil Commissioners who had abolished slavery in Saint-Domingue in 1793.^[1] His power came from his influence with the colored planters who did not trust former slaves, although his army contained blacks and white also.^[2]

In the South and West, from 1793 to 1798, Rigaud played an important role in defeating a British invasion and re-establishing the plantation economy. Although Rigaud respected Toussaint Louverture, the leading general of the former black slaves of the North, and his superior rank in the French Revolutionary Army, his refusal to acknowledge Toussaint's authority led to the bitter "War of the Knives" (La Guerre des Couteaux) in June 1799, when Toussaint's army invaded Rigaud's territory. Comte d'Hédouville, sent by France to govern the island, encouraged Rigaud's rivalry with Toussaint. In 1800, Rigaud was exiled to France.^[3]

[edit] With Leclerc and death

Rigaud returned to Saint-Domingue in 1802 with the expedition of Charles Leclerc, Napoleon's brother-in-law, who sought to unseat Toussaint and re-establish French colonial rule over Saint-Domingue. After the First French Republic abolished slavery in 1794, the colonial system based on sugar cane and coffee plantations had been undermined. The Leclerc expedition, therefore had the aim of restoring slavery. Opposition from Haitian Republican troops led to a three year long war and the independence of Saint Domingue, which returned to its taino name of Haiti.

Rigaud was sent back to France after the failure of the expedition in 1803-1804, and for a time was held a prisoner in the same fortress as his rival Toussaint, the Fort de Joux fortress, where Toussaint had died in 1803.

Upon boarding the return ship to France following his arrest; in a final act of rebellion, Rigaud took his sabre and threw it overboard.

Rigaud returned to Haiti yet a third time in December 1810, establishing himself as President of the Department of the South, in opposition to both Pétion and Henri Christophe. Shortly after his death the following year, the South returned to Pétion's fold.

[edit] Trivia

He is a distant blood relative of Lucchese crime family mob associate Edguardo Rigaud who served under capo Paul Vario.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Notes

^ The Haitian Revolution of 1791-1803. Retrieved on 2006-11-27.
^ Rogozinski, Jan (1999). A Brief History of the Caribbean, Revised, New York: Facts on File, Inc., pp 170–173. ISBN 0-8160-3811-2.
^ The Haitian Revolution. Retrieved on 2006-11-27.