Vincent Ogé
Encyclopedia
Vincent Ogé was a wealthy free man of color and the instigator of a revolt against white colonial authority in French Saint-Domingue
that lasted from October to December 1790 in the area outside Cap-Français, the colony's main city. The Ogé revolt of 1790 foretold the massive slave uprising of August 1791 that began the Haïtian Revolution
.
born in Saint-Domingue, probably of one-quarter African descent and three-quarters French ancestry He was the third son of Jacques Ogé, a white man and Jacqueline Ossé, a free woman of color. With eight children, the Ogé family was large, and Vincent is often confused with his older brother Jacques, who was also involved in what as known as the Ogé revolt. The family owned a coffee plantation in Dondon parish and his mother later held a contract to supply meat to the town's butchers. Educated in Bordeaux, Ogé returned to work with his uncle and namesake Vincent Ogé, a merchant in the major colonial city of Cap Français (today's Cap-Haïtien
). Vincent Ogé jeune (the younger), as he was called for most of his life, eventually took over his uncle's business. He leased valuable urban properties, traded coffee and imported French products to the colony.
In 1789 he was in Paris on business when the French Revolution
broke out. By August of that year he had approached a group of colonial planters living in Paris to propose changing racial laws in the colony that discriminated against light-skinned men regardless of their wealth and education. Independently Julien Raimond
, from a similar background in Saint-Domingue, spoke to the group of planters about the same time. When the planters (called grands blancs) rebuffed their ideas, Ogé and Raimond began to attend meetings in Paris of a group of headed by Étienne Dejoly, a white lawyer. He was a member of the Society of the Friends of the Blacks
(Société des Amis des Noirs), an anti-slavery society founded in 1788 in Paris by Jacques Pierre Brissot
.
Together with Dejoly, Raimond and Ogé quickly became the leaders of this group. They began to pressure the French National Assembly
to give them representation and to force the colonists to allow voting rights for wealthy free men of color. Like others of their class, both men owned slaves in Saint-Domingue, and they claimed they did not intend to weaken slavery. Instead, they said, making free men of color equal to whites in political rights would strengthen their devotion to France and make the system of slavery more secure.
In October 1790 Ogé returned to Saint-Domingue determined to obtain voting privileges for free men of color, whether by persuasion or force. He believed that an amendment passed by the General Assembly of France in March of that year asserted the equality of free men of property. It read "all the proprietors... ought to be active citizens." Ogé believed this gave him the right to vote in upcoming colonial elections. He put pressure on the colonial governor and other authorities to guarantee the voting rights of wealthy free men of color; the colonial governor Count de Blanchelande
refused. While free men of color had become educated and some were wealthy property owners, colonial laws excluded them from voting and holding office, and limited them in other ways.
After his return to Saint-Domingue, Vincent Ogé sent this letter from Grande Rivière
, his camp in the Department of the North, to the President of the Assembly of that department:
With support Ogé obtained from the British abolitionist Thomas Clarkson
in London, Ogé returned to Saint-Domingue via Charleston, South Carolina. Though planters accused him of purchasing firearms in the United States, there is no evidence of this. In October 1790, he arrived in Saint-Domingue. Meeting with Jean-Baptiste Chavannes, another free man of color, militiaman, and veteran of the American Revolution, Oge soon gathered a force of about 250 to 300 free men of color. This group men successfully defeated or frightened away several detachments of colonial militia sent out from Cap Français.
Ogé and his rebels were flushed out by a larger force of professional soldiers and forced across the border into the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo
. On 20 November 1790, Ogé and 23 of his associates, including Jean-Baptiste Chavannes, were captured in Hinche, then part of the Spanish controlled part of Hispaniola
. They surrendered after receiving guarantees of safety, but the Spanish authorities nevertheless returned Ogé and his men to the colonial government of de Blanchelande in Le Cap.
Vincent Ogé was brutally executed by being broken on the wheel in the public square in Le Cap on 6 February 1791. Dozens more of his men were severely punished in February 1791. Their treatment served only to heat up the already boiling cauldron of dissatisfaction among free men of color and slaves in the colony. Ogé became an important symbol of the injustices of a colonial slave society that wanted to restrict the benefits of the French Revolution to whites only.
Saint-Domingue
The labour for these plantations was provided by an estimated 790,000 African slaves . Between 1764 and 1771, the average annual importation of slaves varied between 10,000-15,000; by 1786 it was about 28,000, and from 1787 onward, the colony received more than 40,000 slaves a year...
that lasted from October to December 1790 in the area outside Cap-Français, the colony's main city. The Ogé revolt of 1790 foretold the massive slave uprising of August 1791 that began the Haïtian Revolution
Haïtian Revolution
The Haitian Revolution was a period of conflict in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, which culminated in the elimination of slavery there and the founding of the Haitian republic...
.
Biography
Ogé was a wealthy and educated free man of colourGens de couleur
Gens de couleur is a French term meaning "people of color." The term was commonly used in France's West Indian colonies prior to the abolition of slavery, where it was a short form of gens de couleur libres ....
born in Saint-Domingue, probably of one-quarter African descent and three-quarters French ancestry He was the third son of Jacques Ogé, a white man and Jacqueline Ossé, a free woman of color. With eight children, the Ogé family was large, and Vincent is often confused with his older brother Jacques, who was also involved in what as known as the Ogé revolt. The family owned a coffee plantation in Dondon parish and his mother later held a contract to supply meat to the town's butchers. Educated in Bordeaux, Ogé returned to work with his uncle and namesake Vincent Ogé, a merchant in the major colonial city of Cap Français (today's Cap-Haïtien
Cap-Haïtien
Cap-Haïtien is a city of about 190,000 people on the north coast of Haiti and capital of the Department of Nord...
). Vincent Ogé jeune (the younger), as he was called for most of his life, eventually took over his uncle's business. He leased valuable urban properties, traded coffee and imported French products to the colony.
In 1789 he was in Paris on business when the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
broke out. By August of that year he had approached a group of colonial planters living in Paris to propose changing racial laws in the colony that discriminated against light-skinned men regardless of their wealth and education. Independently Julien Raimond
Julien Raimond
Julien Raimond was an indigo planter in the French colony of Saint-Domingue .-Early activism:He was born a free man of color, the son of a French colonist and the mulatto daughter of a planter, in the isolated South province of the colony. Raimond owned over 100 slaves by the 1780s, and was one of...
, from a similar background in Saint-Domingue, spoke to the group of planters about the same time. When the planters (called grands blancs) rebuffed their ideas, Ogé and Raimond began to attend meetings in Paris of a group of headed by Étienne Dejoly, a white lawyer. He was a member of the Society of the Friends of the Blacks
Society of the Friends of the Blacks
The Society of the Friends of the Blacks was a group of French men and women, mostly white, who were abolitionists . The Society was created in Paris in 1788, and remained in existence until 1793...
(Société des Amis des Noirs), an anti-slavery society founded in 1788 in Paris by Jacques Pierre Brissot
Jacques Pierre Brissot
Jacques Pierre Brissot , who assumed the name of de Warville, was a leading member of the Girondist movement during the French Revolution. Some sources give his name as Jean Pierre Brissot.-Biography:...
.
Together with Dejoly, Raimond and Ogé quickly became the leaders of this group. They began to pressure the French National Assembly
French National Assembly
The French National Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of France under the Fifth Republic. The upper house is the Senate ....
to give them representation and to force the colonists to allow voting rights for wealthy free men of color. Like others of their class, both men owned slaves in Saint-Domingue, and they claimed they did not intend to weaken slavery. Instead, they said, making free men of color equal to whites in political rights would strengthen their devotion to France and make the system of slavery more secure.
In October 1790 Ogé returned to Saint-Domingue determined to obtain voting privileges for free men of color, whether by persuasion or force. He believed that an amendment passed by the General Assembly of France in March of that year asserted the equality of free men of property. It read "all the proprietors... ought to be active citizens." Ogé believed this gave him the right to vote in upcoming colonial elections. He put pressure on the colonial governor and other authorities to guarantee the voting rights of wealthy free men of color; the colonial governor Count de Blanchelande
Philibert François Rouxel de Blanchelande
Philippe François Rouxel, viscount de Blanchelande was a French general...
refused. While free men of color had become educated and some were wealthy property owners, colonial laws excluded them from voting and holding office, and limited them in other ways.
After his return to Saint-Domingue, Vincent Ogé sent this letter from Grande Rivière
Grande-Rivière-du-Nord
Grande-Rivière-du-Nord is a municipality in the Grande-Rivière-du-Nord Arrondissement, in the Nord Department of Haiti. Jean-Jacques Dessalines was born there in 1758 on the Cormiers plantation....
, his camp in the Department of the North, to the President of the Assembly of that department:
With support Ogé obtained from the British abolitionist Thomas Clarkson
Thomas Clarkson
Thomas Clarkson , was an English abolitionist, and a leading campaigner against the slave trade in the British Empire. He helped found The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade and helped achieve passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807, which ended British trade in slaves...
in London, Ogé returned to Saint-Domingue via Charleston, South Carolina. Though planters accused him of purchasing firearms in the United States, there is no evidence of this. In October 1790, he arrived in Saint-Domingue. Meeting with Jean-Baptiste Chavannes, another free man of color, militiaman, and veteran of the American Revolution, Oge soon gathered a force of about 250 to 300 free men of color. This group men successfully defeated or frightened away several detachments of colonial militia sent out from Cap Français.
Ogé and his rebels were flushed out by a larger force of professional soldiers and forced across the border into the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...
. On 20 November 1790, Ogé and 23 of his associates, including Jean-Baptiste Chavannes, were captured in Hinche, then part of the Spanish controlled part of Hispaniola
Hispaniola
Hispaniola is a major island in the Caribbean, containing the two sovereign states of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The island is located between the islands of Cuba to the west and Puerto Rico to the east, within the hurricane belt...
. They surrendered after receiving guarantees of safety, but the Spanish authorities nevertheless returned Ogé and his men to the colonial government of de Blanchelande in Le Cap.
Vincent Ogé was brutally executed by being broken on the wheel in the public square in Le Cap on 6 February 1791. Dozens more of his men were severely punished in February 1791. Their treatment served only to heat up the already boiling cauldron of dissatisfaction among free men of color and slaves in the colony. Ogé became an important symbol of the injustices of a colonial slave society that wanted to restrict the benefits of the French Revolution to whites only.
See also
- Free people of colorFree people of colorA free person of color in the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, is a person of full or partial African descent who was not enslaved...
- AffranchiAffranchi"Affranchi" is a former French legal term denoting a freedman or emancipated slave. It is used in English to describe the class of freedmen in Saint-Domingue and other slave-holding French territories, who held legal rights intermediate between those of free whites and enslaved people of color...
- Slavery in the British and French CaribbeanSlavery in the British and French CaribbeanSlavery in the British and French Caribbean refers to slavery in the parts of the Caribbean dominated by France or the British Empire.-Conditions:The Lesser Antilles islands of Barbados, St...
- History of HaitiHistory of HaitiThe recorded history of Haiti began on December 5, 1492 when the European navigator Christopher Columbus happened upon a large island in the region of the western Atlantic Ocean that later came to be known as the Caribbean. It was inhabited by the Taíno, an Arawakan people, who variously called...
External links
- The Louverture Project: "Vincent Ogé"
- "Motion Made by Vincent Ogé the Younger to the Assembly of Colonists, 1789", Center for History and New Media, George Mason University