Difference between revisions of "Jean François Papillon"

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'''Jean François Papillon''' (also ''Jean François'')  (died 1820 Cádiz, Spain) Leader of the [[1791]] [[The Boukman Rebellion|slave revolt]] also known as Bookman Rebellion and reportedly present at the [[vodou]] ceremony at  [[Bois Caïman]].
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'''Jean-François Papillon''' was an Africa-born slave that had worked in the Papillon plantation, in the North Province of Saint-Domingue. He escaped the said plantation some years before the revolutionary outbreak in Saint-Domingue, living as a maroon until 1791. So when the Haitian revolution started, he had already enjoyed a previous experience of liberty and he was one of the "slave leaders" that led that historical process.  
  
A [[maroon]], he despised his former master. "Ambitious, volatile, frivolous, and charming... highly intelligent.  He was not a brave man but hated violence and could only bring himself to it when drunk, at which time his normal sexual feelings turned to brutality."  Desire for self-aggrandizement.  Magnetic. ([[This Gilded African|Parkinson]], pp 39-40)  "A commander with a touch of greatness" Used ruse and brutal discipline to keep the army in check, "but he also employed the velvet glove of charm of manner, gaiety and good looks which made those who served under him his willing followers."  ([[This Gilded African|Parkinson]], p. 47)  A very talented general, nearly equal to [[Toussaint Louverture]].
 
  
Toussaint Louverture writes at the beginning of the Haitian Revolution in a [[1791]] [[Toussaint letter to Biassou during Boukman Rebellion|letter to Biassou]]: "As for Jean Francois he can still go in a carriage with his ladies, but he hasn’t done me the honor of writing to me for several days. I am very surprised by this..."
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<big>'''Role in the Haitian revolution'''</big>
  
"Jean-François belonged to a colonist of the name of Papillon. A young creole of good exterior, he had not been able to bear the yoke of slavery, though he had no special cause of complaint against his master; he had, long before the revolution, obtained his liberty. Flying from the plantation, he joined the maroons, or black fugitives, who wandered at large in the refuge of the mountains. He was naturally of a mild disposition, and inclined to clemency. If his career was stained by cruelties, the crime must be imputed to perfidious councils. Of no great courage, and little enterprise, he owed his command to his intellectual superiority. ([[The Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture|Beard]] p. 62-63)
 
  
[[Edmond de Saint-Léger]], a French Commissioner who arrived in Saint-Domingue on November 29, 1791, walked calmly into the middle of a crowd of rebels and greeted Jean François "''with respect. He spoke graciously and quietly to all the rebels and with his Irish charm [...] placated them. Jean François showed an emotional reaction after the scene of unpleasantness and responded to such warm and unprecedented behaviour by falling on one knee before him''." (Parkinson, p. 63)
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Though the mythic ''vodou'' ceremony at Bois Caïman, in the night of 21 August 1791, has been usually regarded as the origin of the slave insurrection, some preeminent scholars, significantly David Geggus, have argued that there is no almost no historical evidence for it. For that reason, Geggus states that the slave leaders planned the black revolution one week before, on 14 August 1791, when they gathered in the plantation of Lenormand de Mézy and agreed to rise up in rebellion to conquer freedom exclusively for themselves. As they knew that they needed the support of the slave masses, crucial for the triumph of the insurrection, they pretended to fight for universal emancipation. Nevertheless, none of the leaders of the insurrection believed in that principle; in fact Jean-François himself declared to the North American agents, present in Le Cap François at the time, 'that he had not created himself General of the negroes, that those who had that power had confered [sic] upon him that title; that in taking up arms, he never pretended to fight for General Liberty, which he knew to be an illusion'.
 
 
"Jean François remained in the service of Spain" after the [[Treaty of Basle]] ceded the eastern portion of [[Hispaniola]] to France in [[1795]]. "He was made lieutenant general and retired to Cadiz, later becoming Governor of Orun.  He was rich and popular with the Spanish court, particularly with the women, his remarkable good looks and fine physique were considered exotic and he made a most favourable and successful impression.  He forgot [[St. Domingue]] and revolutions as quickly as he could, never setting foot on the island again, but living a life of luxurious carefree pleasure until he died in 1820." ([[This Gilded African|Parkinson]], p. 92)
 
 
 
==See Also==
 
*[[The Boukman Rebellion]]
 
*[[Toussaint letter to Biassou during Boukman Rebellion]]
 
* [[Decree abolishing slavery in the North of Saint-Domingue]] - Mentions Jean Françcois by name. (1793)
 
 
 
==References==
 
* {{The Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture}}
 
* Général Nemours, (1945) ''Toussaint Louverture fonde à Saint-Domingue la liberté et l'égalité'', Port-au-Prince
 
* {{This Gilded African}}
 
 
 
[[Category:Who's Who|Papillon, Jean François]]
 
[[Category:Blacks|Papillon, Jean François]]
 
[[Category:Generals|Papillon, Jean François]]
 
[[Category:Military|Papillon, Jean François]]
 
[[Category:Maroons|Papillon, Jean François]]
 
[[Category:Rebels|Papillon, Jean François]]
 

Revision as of 08:22, 10 December 2011

Jean-François Papillon was an Africa-born slave that had worked in the Papillon plantation, in the North Province of Saint-Domingue. He escaped the said plantation some years before the revolutionary outbreak in Saint-Domingue, living as a maroon until 1791. So when the Haitian revolution started, he had already enjoyed a previous experience of liberty and he was one of the "slave leaders" that led that historical process.


Role in the Haitian revolution


Though the mythic vodou ceremony at Bois Caïman, in the night of 21 August 1791, has been usually regarded as the origin of the slave insurrection, some preeminent scholars, significantly David Geggus, have argued that there is no almost no historical evidence for it. For that reason, Geggus states that the slave leaders planned the black revolution one week before, on 14 August 1791, when they gathered in the plantation of Lenormand de Mézy and agreed to rise up in rebellion to conquer freedom exclusively for themselves. As they knew that they needed the support of the slave masses, crucial for the triumph of the insurrection, they pretended to fight for universal emancipation. Nevertheless, none of the leaders of the insurrection believed in that principle; in fact Jean-François himself declared to the North American agents, present in Le Cap François at the time, 'that he had not created himself General of the negroes, that those who had that power had confered [sic] upon him that title; that in taking up arms, he never pretended to fight for General Liberty, which he knew to be an illusion'.