Étienne Maynaud de Bizefranc de Laveaux

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Étienne Maynaud de Bizefranc de Lavaux
Governor of Saint-Domingue
In office
14 October 1793 – 11 May 1796
Preceded byFrançois Galbaud du Fort
Succeeded byLéger-Félicité Sonthonax
Deputy for Saint-Domingue
In office
14 October 1795 – 13 April 1799
Deputy for Saône-et-Loire
In office
13 April 1799 – 1799
Deputy for Saône-et-Loire
In office
4 November 1820 – 24 December 1823
Personal details
Born(1751-08-08)8 August 1751
Digoin, Saône-et-Loire, France
Died12 May 1828(1828-05-12) (aged 76)
Cormatin, Saône-et-Loire, France
OccupationSoldier, politician

Étienne Maynaud de Bizefranc de Lavaux (or Mayneaud de Laveaux; 8 August 1751 – 12 May 1828) was a French general who was Governor of Saint-Domingue from 1793 to 1796 during the French Revolution. He ensured that the law that freed the slaves was enforced, and supported the black leader Toussaint Louverture, who later established the independent republic of Haiti. After the Bourbon Restoration he was Deputy for Saône-et-Loire from 1820 to 1823.

Early years

Etienne Mayneaud Bizefranc de Lavaux was born on 8 August 1751 in Digoin, Saône-et-Loire, France. His parents were Hugues Mayneaud, Seigneur de Bizefranc, Tavau, Pancemont (1716–1781), Receiver of the King's Farms, and Marie Jeanne de Baudoin de Lavaux. He was the third of six children born between 1749 and 1756.[1] He joined the army, and became a captain in the dragoons before 1789.[2]

Revolutionary period

Lavaux was promoted to squadron leader in 1790, and became a general councillor for Saône-et-Loire that year.[2] He was a lieutenant-colonel in 1791. In 1792 he arrived in Saint-Domingue with the commissioners Léger-Félicité Sonthonax and Étienne Polverel, and took charge of the northwest part of the colony, based in Port-de-Paix.[3] When the commissioners arrived they found that many of the white planters were hostile to the increasingly radical revolutionary movement and were joining the royalist opposition. The commissioners announced that they did not intend to abolish slavery, but had come to ensure that free men had equal rights whatever their color.[4] In October news arrived that the king had been suspended and France was now a republic.[5]

A confused three-way struggle began between the whites, free people of color and rebel slaves.[6] In January 1793 Laveux led a force that included free-colored troops against slave insurgents in the town of Milot and drove them back into the mountains.[7] That month Louis XVI was executed in Paris, and in February Spain and Britain declared war on France.[8] Around May 1793 a new governor, François-Thomas Galbaud du Fort, arrived in the colony.[9] In May or June 1793 Toussaint Louverture contacted Laveaux and proposed "avenues of reconciliation", but they were rejected.[10] Lavaux was appointed acting governor of Saint-Domingue on 14 October 1793.[3]

On 5 May 1794 Laveaux sent a letter to Louverture asking him to leave the Spanish and join the French Republicans. Louverture accepted in his reply of 18 May 1794.[11] After invading Saint-Domingue, the British decided to impose British laws in the colony, including racially discriminatory laws. The free-coloreds in the area occupied by the British began to turn against them. Laveaux told them they would be better off under Republican rule, and also warned the free-colored in Saint-Marc that if they did not surrender he would tell Louverture to sack the town, only sparing the "former slaves".[12]

Lavaux was promoted to divisional general on 25 May 1795.[3] As governor he ensured that the abolition of slavery proclaimed in 4 February 1794 was put into effect, and organized the integration of former slaves into the republican society of Saint-Domingue.[3] In contrast to Guadeloupe, where the liberation of the slaves was accomplished quietly, in Saint-Domingue most of the former slaves abandoned the plantations and the situation became disturbed. Lavaux also failed to expel the British from Saint-Domingue.[13] On 22 Vendemiaire, year IV (14 October 1795) he was appointed to the Council of Ancients as deputy for Saint-Domingue.[2] On 20 March 1796 Lavaux and his aides-de-camp were imprisoned by mulattoes. Toussaint marched on the town to free him, and in return Lavaux appointed Toussaint Lieutenant-General to the Government of Santo Domingo.[3]

On 24 Germinal year VII (13 April 1799) Lavaux was unanimously reelected to the Council of Ancients for the department of Saone-et-Loire with 248 votes.[2] Toussaint had him elected deputy to the Council of Elders for the Department of Saone-et-Loire. He sat there until 1799, defending the policy of Toussaint Louverture.[3]

Directory and Empire

Château de Cormatin

Lavaux was Commissioner of the Directory in Guadeloupe and its agent in Saint-Domingue in 1799.[2] He was quickly arrested for being too sympathetic to the blacks.[3] The First Consul Napoleon dismissed Lavaux from office in 1801, and he played no further role under the empire. During this period of forced retirement he acquired the Château de Cormatin, which he renovated.[3]

Deputy

Under the second Bourbon Restoration, in the second legislature Mayneaud Bizefranc de Lavaux was deputy for the department of Saône-et-Loire from 4 November 1820 to 24 December 1823. He represented the first district of Saône-et-Loire (Mâcon). He sat on the left, voted with the constitutional opposition, and vigorously defended the rights of the old army.[2]

Lavaux died in the Château de Cormatin on 12 May 1828, in Cormatin, Saône-et-Loire.[2][3] A commemorative plaque at the entrance to Cormatin Castle says that General Lavaux played a vital role in the insurrection of the slaves of Saint-Domingue that was followed by the first victory of a slave revolt leading to the creation of the first black republic in history with Haiti on 1 January 1804.[3]

Notes

  1. ^ Tina Gaquer.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Robert & Cougny 1889.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Mémoire d'Etienne Maynaud de Lavaux.
  4. ^ Dubois 2009, p. 144.
  5. ^ Dubois 2009, p. 145.
  6. ^ Dubois 2009, p. 146.
  7. ^ Dubois 2009, p. 147.
  8. ^ Dubois 2009, p. 152.
  9. ^ Dubois 2009, p. 155.
  10. ^ Dubois 2009, p. 177.
  11. ^ Dubois 2009, p. 179.
  12. ^ Dubois 2009, p. 181.
  13. ^ Cormack 2019, p. 208.

Sources

  • Cormack, William S. (1 January 2019), Patriots, Royalists, and Terrorists in the West Indies: The French Revolution in Martinique and Guadeloupe, 1789-1802, University of Toronto Press, ISBN 978-1-4875-0395-6, retrieved 31 October 2019
  • Dubois, Laurent (30 June 2009), Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution, Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0-674-03436-5, retrieved 31 October 2019
  • "Mémoire d'Etienne Maynaud de Lavaux", Mémoires des abolitions de l'Esclavage (in French), retrieved 2019-10-31
  • Robert, Adolphe; Cougny, Gaston (1889), "Etienne Mayneaud Bizefranc de Lavaux", Dictionnaire des parlementaires français de 1789 à 1889 (in French), Paris: Bourloton, retrieved 2019-10-30
  • Tina Gaquer, "Etienne Mayneaud Bizefranc de Lavaux", Geneanet (in French), retrieved 2019-10-31
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