Vincent Ogé

Jacques Vincent Ogé (also Vincent Ogé the Younger) (1750 Dondon, Saint-Domingue - February 6, 1791 Le Cap, Saint-Domingue) an affranchis delegate in France and leader of a mulatto revolt. He had been educated in Paris. He was the son of a wealthy butcher in Le Cap. (Beard p. 46) He led a revolt against the white colonial authorities in Saint-Domingue that lasted from October to November 1790 in the vicinity of Le Cap, Ogé's revolt of 1790 preceeded the Boukman Rebellion in August of 1791 by less than a year, and makes clear that many sectors of Saint-Domingue society were ready to take up arms to put an end to the French cruelties.

Vincent Ogé, member of the Amis des Noirs
As a member of the Friends of the Negro (Amis des Noirs), Ogé had been frustrated by the Assembly's refusal to extend the Rights of Man to mulattoes and decided to take matters into his own hands after his efforts in France such as the 1789 motion to the Assembly of Colonists in Paris did not lead to greater freedom for the affranchis in the colony. Revolutionary France seemed unwilling to extent the ideals of the French Revolution to all sectors of it's colonial empire.

"While residing in Paris he made the acquaintance and enjoyed the familiar friendship of Brissot, Robespierre, Lafayette, and other revolutionists connected with the society Amis des Noirs. From these men he learned his lessons of freedom. (Langston)

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:

Ogé's letter to the Provincial Assembly of Le Cap
(Beard p. 46-47)

The Ogé Rebellion of 1790
With money Ogé obtained from the British abolitionist Thomas Clarkson in London, he purchased firearms on a trip to New Orleans in the United States (James p. 73) returning with 250 men to Saint-Domingue (on October 23, 1790, landing near Le Cap) to attempt a mulatto uprising. Unfortunately, though an eloquent speaker, Ogé was no general and was decisively overpowered.

Marcus Rainsford gives this accountin his 1805 book: An Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti...:

"'During his [Ogé's] residence at Paris, for the purpose of education, he had imbibed, in addition to the natural feelings of his class, all the prejudices entertained at this period against the white planters in the mother country. Having become connected with the society of Amis des Noirs, and inflated with an idea of his own capacity, he was easily persuaded by Robespierre, and other violent members, to attach himself to a conspiracy, supposed to be already ripe in St. Domingo, and requiring only the talents of an active leader to produce the effects desired, in behalf of the people of color. Armed by their means, and charged with all the inveteracy of the party, Ogé arrived in St. Domingo about two months after the Assembly bad left it, and immediately prepared to assume an imaginary command, for which he had no foundation. He found means to convey a quantity of arms and ammunition to a place called Grande Rivière, about fifteen miles from the Cape, where his brother had been prepared to receive it, and, having collected about two hundred followers, exerted himself every where in spreading disaffection; he wrote imperiously to M. Peynier, stating the inattention which had been paid to the execution of the Code Noir, demanding its enforcement, and also an extension of the privileges enjoyed by the whites to all persons without distinction. He took upon himself the character of Protector of the Mulattoes, and declared his intention, if necessary, of arming in their behalf. He established his camp where he had deposited his stores, and appointed his two brothers, and another mulatto, of a ferocious character, named Mark Chavane [Chavannes?], his lieutenants.' (Rainsford p. 121f)"

Vincent Ogé Dies on the Stake
On November 20, 1790 Vincent Ogé and 23 of his associates, including Jean Baptiste Chavannes, are captured in Hinche - then part of the Spanish controlled part of Hispaniola - on behalf of Governor-Greneral Blanchelande. Vincent Ogé's exceptionally brutal (Kennedy p. 136) torture and death (James pp. 73 - 74) on the stake in Le Cap on February 6, 1791 served only to heat up an already rapidly boiling cauldron of dissatisfaction.

Rainsford, in his book An Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti..., states that Ogé's father was a coffee plantation owner near Le cap. (Rainsford p. 121)