Jean-François Papillon

?–1805? → Died in exile

Early leader of the slave rising who became its commander-in-chief after Boukman's death and then swore allegiance to the King of Spain

Born in Africa and enslaved on the Papillon plantation in the North Province of Saint-Domingue, he escaped and became a maroon. After the death of Boukman, the first leader of the August 1791 rising, he imposed his authority over Biassou, Jeannot and Toussaint and became commander-in-chief of the insurgents; in November 1791 he and Biassou arrested and executed Jeannot for his massacres. He told North American agents at Le Cap that he had never pretended to fight for general liberty. On 6 May 1793 he swore loyalty to the King of Spain and led the black auxiliaries to a series of conquests, but his massacre of the French inhabitants of Bayajá (Fort-Dauphin) in July 1794 ruined their standing. After the Treaty of Basel he was shipped via Havana to Cádiz in 1796, kept there almost as a prisoner, and died forgotten in the early 1800s, perhaps in 1805.