Difference between revisions of "Vincent Ogé"

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'''Vincent Ogé''' ''(aka Jacques Vincent Ogé)''  (1750 Dondon - February 6, [[1791]] [[Port-au-Prince]])- As a member of the [[Amis des Noirs|Friends of the Negro]] (a Mulatto organization), 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.  With money he got from [[Thomas Clarkson]] in London, he purchased firearms in the US ([[The Black Jacobins|James]] p. 73) and sent them to [[Saint-Domingue]] to attempt a Mulatto uprising.  Unfortunately, though an eloquent speaker, Ogé was no general and was decisively overpowered.  His exceptionally brutal ([[Orders From France|Kennedy]] p. 136) torture and death ([[The Black Jacobins|James]] pp. 73 - 74) served only to heat up an already rapidly boiling cauldron of dissatisfaction.
 
'''Vincent Ogé''' ''(aka Jacques Vincent Ogé)''  (1750 Dondon - February 6, [[1791]] [[Port-au-Prince]])- As a member of the [[Amis des Noirs|Friends of the Negro]] (a Mulatto organization), 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.  With money he got from [[Thomas Clarkson]] in London, he purchased firearms in the US ([[The Black Jacobins|James]] p. 73) and sent them to [[Saint-Domingue]] to attempt a Mulatto uprising.  Unfortunately, though an eloquent speaker, Ogé was no general and was decisively overpowered.  His exceptionally brutal ([[Orders From France|Kennedy]] p. 136) torture and death ([[The Black Jacobins|James]] pp. 73 - 74) served only to heat up an already rapidly boiling cauldron of dissatisfaction.
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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:
  
 
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But, no sooner was one cause of commotion removed, than another supplied its place, of a more hostile complexion and with less occasion—the rebellion of Ogé, a mulatto; whose mother had a coffee plantation about thirty miles from [[Cape François]]. During his 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 Grand 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]] [the laws for the protection of the Blacks, instituted by Louis XIV], 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, his lieutenants. These men commenced their unruly operations by the murder of two white men, whom they met accidentally, and by punishing with extreme cruelty those of their own complexion not disposed to revolt; one who excused himself on account of a wife and six children, they murdered, with the whole of his family. Fortunately their reign was not long, for a body of regular troops, and the Cape Militia, were dispatched to invest their camp, when, with a weak resistance, they were totally routed; many were killed, sixty were taken prisoners, and the chiefs escaped into the Spanish part of the island. ([[Rainsford]] p121-22)
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<center>'''VINCENT OGÉ TO THE MEMBERS COMPOSING THE PROVINCIAL ASSEMBLY OF THE CAPE.'''</center>
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"GENTLEMEN:--A prejudice, too long maintained, is about to fall. I am charged with a commission doubtless very honorable to myself. I require you to promulgate throughout the colony the instructions of the National Assembly of the 8th of March, which gives without distinction, to all free citizens, the right of admission to all offices and functions. My pretensions are just, and I hope you will pay due regard to them. I shall not call the plantations to rise; that means would be unworthy of me. Learn to appreciate the merit of a man whose intention is pure. When I solicited from the National Assembly a decreewhich I obtained in favor of the American colonists, formerly known under the injurious epithet of 'men of mixed blood,' I did not include in my claims the condition of the negroes who live in servitude. You and our adversaries have misrepresented my steps in order to bring me into discredit with honorable men. No, no, gentlemen! we have put forth a claim only on behalf of a class of freemen, who, for two centuries, have been under the yoke of oppression. We require the execution of the decree of the 8th of March. We insist on its promulgation, and we shall not cease to repeat to our friends that our adversaries are unjust, and that they know not how to make their interests compatible with ours. Before employing my means, I make use of mildness; but if, contrary to my expectation, you do not satisfy my demand, I am not answerable for the disorder into which my just vengeance may carry me." ([[Beard]] p. 46-47)
  
 
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==References==
 
==References==
 
* {{The Black Jacobins}}
 
* {{The Black Jacobins}}
 
* {{Orders From France}}
 
* {{Orders From France}}
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* Marcus Rainsford, (1805) ''An Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti: Comprehending a View of the Principal Transactions in the Revolution of Saint-Domingo; with its Ancient and Modern State'', London.
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* {{Toussaint L'Ouverture: A Biography and Autobiography}}
  
 
==External link==
 
==External link==

Revision as of 12:36, 10 November 2005

Vincent Ogé (aka Jacques Vincent Ogé) (1750 Dondon - February 6, 1791 Port-au-Prince)- As a member of the Friends of the Negro (a Mulatto organization), 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. With money he got from Thomas Clarkson in London, he purchased firearms in the US (James p. 73) and sent them to Saint-Domingue to attempt a Mulatto uprising. Unfortunately, though an eloquent speaker, Ogé was no general and was decisively overpowered. His exceptionally brutal (Kennedy p. 136) torture and death (James pp. 73 - 74) served only to heat up an already rapidly boiling cauldron of dissatisfaction.

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:

VINCENT OGÉ TO THE MEMBERS COMPOSING THE PROVINCIAL ASSEMBLY OF THE CAPE.

"GENTLEMEN:--A prejudice, too long maintained, is about to fall. I am charged with a commission doubtless very honorable to myself. I require you to promulgate throughout the colony the instructions of the National Assembly of the 8th of March, which gives without distinction, to all free citizens, the right of admission to all offices and functions. My pretensions are just, and I hope you will pay due regard to them. I shall not call the plantations to rise; that means would be unworthy of me. Learn to appreciate the merit of a man whose intention is pure. When I solicited from the National Assembly a decreewhich I obtained in favor of the American colonists, formerly known under the injurious epithet of 'men of mixed blood,' I did not include in my claims the condition of the negroes who live in servitude. You and our adversaries have misrepresented my steps in order to bring me into discredit with honorable men. No, no, gentlemen! we have put forth a claim only on behalf of a class of freemen, who, for two centuries, have been under the yoke of oppression. We require the execution of the decree of the 8th of March. We insist on its promulgation, and we shall not cease to repeat to our friends that our adversaries are unjust, and that they know not how to make their interests compatible with ours. Before employing my means, I make use of mildness; but if, contrary to my expectation, you do not satisfy my demand, I am not answerable for the disorder into which my just vengeance may carry me." (Beard p. 46-47)

References

  • James, C.L.R. (1989). The Black Jacobins. Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution. (2nd Ed., Revised) New York: Vintage Press. ISBN 0-679-72467-2.
  • Kennedy, Roger G. (1989). Orders from France: The Americans and the French in a Revolutionary World, 1780-1820. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-394-55592-9.
  • Beard, J. R. (John Relly) (1863). Toussaint L'Ouverture: A Biography and Autobiography. Chapel Hill, NC: Academic Affairs Library, UNC-CH. Online Publication

External link

Retrieved from "https://thelouvertureproject.org/index.php?title=Vincent_Ogé&oldid=9099"