Étienne Polverel

French First Republic state institutions Jacobins and French revolutionary radicals 1740–1795 ○ Died during his trial

Jacobin civil commissioner sent to Saint-Domingue with Sonthonax who freed the slaves of the western and southern provinces in 1793

A wealthy aristocratic lawyer from Béarn and a member of the Jacobin Club, he wrote against slavery in radical newspapers after 1789. Sent with Sonthonax and Ailhaud as civil commissioner to enforce the decree of 4 April 1792, with about 10,000 troops, he reached Cap-Français on 17 September and proclaimed that they had not come to abolish slavery. He took charge of the West, and of the South when Ailhaud left. When Galbaud attacked Cap-Français in June 1793 he and Sonthonax promised citizenship to Blacks who fought for them and retook the city. Between August and 31 October 1793 they freed all the slaves step by step, Polverel requiring the freed to keep working on their plantations for a year. Recalled as men of Brissot's circle, he returned to France in 1794, was tried on the colonists' charges and died of illness before the verdict.

Also known as: Étienne Polvérel · Etienne Polverel