Jean-Baptiste Belley, France’s First Black Member of Parliament: From Slavery to the Revolution

Jean-Baptiste Belley holds a unique place in the history of the French Revolution. A former enslaved man who became a free man, soldier, and then representative of Saint-Domingue in the National Convention, he is regarded as the first Black member of parliament in French history. His life spans the contradictions of an era in which principles of equality proclaimed in Paris coexisted with slavery in the colonies.

Elected in 1793 and admitted to the Convention in February 1794, Belley took part in the moment when the Republic abolished slavery in the French colonies. Yet less than a decade later, the Consular government had him arrested. Imprisoned in the citadel of Belle-Île-en-Mer, he would never leave it.

From Gorée to Saint-Domingue: a childhood marked by deportation

Jean-Baptiste Belley was born between 1746 and 1747 on the island of Gorée, Senegal. Some documents also mention the name Tame-Bessé, without making it possible to determine whether it was his African name or a nickname. During his military career, he was also given the nickname “Mars,” after the Roman god of war.

At around the age of two, he was deported to Saint-Domingue, the territory now known as Haiti. The crossing aboard slave ships took place under deadly conditions: enslaved people were packed together and exposed to extremely high mortality rates. Belley survived and arrived in a colony that was then central to the French Atlantic economy, based in particular on sugar and coffee production through the forced labor of hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans.

At around the age of 17, Jean-Baptiste Belley managed to buy his freedom. In the archives of Cap-Français from the 1770s, he appears as a “free man of color” working as a wigmaker. This freedom nevertheless remained highly incomplete. Free people of color could work in certain trades, own property, and sometimes own enslaved people, but they still faced legal discrimination because of the color of their skin.

A soldier involved in the wars of his time

In his thirties, Belley became a soldier. From 1778 onward, France supported the American insurgents fighting Great Britain. Saint-Domingue supplied troops, including free men of color gathered within the Chasseurs Volontaires de Saint-Domingue.

Jean-Baptiste Belley joined this unit and took part in the French expedition sent to Savannah, Georgia, in 1779. Its aim was to retake the city from the British. The assault failed, but the experience gave Belley military training that would matter during the revolutionary period. It was in this context that he was nicknamed “Mars.”

Upon returning to Saint-Domingue, nothing yet suggested that he would become a representative of the French nation. The Revolution of 1789, however, would overturn the colonial order.

The French Revolution and the demand for equality

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, adopted on August 26, 1789, stated that men are born and remain free and equal in rights. In Saint-Domingue, this assertion immediately clashed with a deeply unequal society: around 500,000 people were held in slavery, compared with several tens of thousands of White people and free people of color.

At first, the demands put forward by free people of color primarily concerned equal rights with White people. Vincent Ogé, a property owner and free man of color, defended this cause in Paris before returning to Saint-Domingue in 1790 with around one hundred men. His movement was swiftly repressed; he was captured and publicly executed in 1791.

The demands did not disappear. An initial law, passed in May 1791, granted rights only to some free people of color: those born to a free father and mother. On April 4, 1792, a new law finally established equal political rights between people of color and White people.

At the same time, the colony was swept up in insurrection. During the night of August 22 to 23, 1791, enslaved people in northern Saint-Domingue rose up. The revolt spread across the colony and began the revolutionary process that would lead, thirteen years later, to Haiti’s independence.

A republican captain and elected representative of Saint-Domingue

Official sources mention Jean-Baptiste Belley again in 1793 as an infantry captain. He supported the civil commissioners sent by the Republic, Léger-Félicité Sonthonax and Étienne Polverel, who were tasked in particular with enforcing the rights granted to free people of color and maintaining French authority.

In June 1793, in Cap-Français, the commissioners faced Governor François-Thomas Galbaud, who was backed by White colonists opposed to the political equality of free people of color. To resist, Sonthonax sought support from Black insurgents and promised them freedom. Several thousand joined his forces, including Jean-Baptiste Belley. Galbaud’s troops were driven back.

In a colony shaken by revolts and threatened by wars against Spain and Great Britain, the commissioners then made a decisive choice. On August 29, 1793, Sonthonax proclaimed the abolition of slavery in northern Saint-Domingue. Polverel subsequently extended emancipation to the other provinces.

To secure recognition of this decision in Paris, Saint-Domingue elected representatives. Jean-Baptiste Belley was chosen in the north of the colony, alongside Louis-Pierre Dufay, a White man, and Jean-Baptiste Mills, a mixed-race man. This delegation reflected the colony’s social and racial diversity while advancing the same demand: to have emancipation and the abolition of slavery recognized.

The first Black member of parliament admitted to the Convention

The delegation’s arrival in France was difficult. Colonial interests hostile to abolition secured the arrest of the three elected representatives, who were imprisoned even before receiving official recognition. From detention, they wrote to the Convention on January 31, 1794. The Committee of Public Safety intervened, and their release was secured.

On February 3, 1794, Belley, Mills, and Dufay appeared before the National Convention. Their elections were validated, and they were admitted as representatives of the French people. Jean-Baptiste Belley thus became the first Black member of parliament in French history.

On February 4, Louis-Pierre Dufay defended before the Convention the general freedom proclaimed in Saint-Domingue. After several speeches by members, including Lacroix and Danton, the assembly voted to abolish slavery throughout all French colonies, at least in law.

On February 8, Belley spoke in turn. He accused representatives of colonial interests of working against the Saint-Domingue delegation and called for prosecutions following their arrest. His work did not end with the abolition vote: he subsequently defended equality between citizens in the colonies and those in metropolitan France. He served first in the Convention and then in the Council of Five Hundred under the Directory.

Girodet’s portrait and the place of a Black elected official in the Republic

In 1797, painter Anne-Louis Girodet produced a celebrated portrait of Jean-Baptiste Belley. The member of parliament appears standing, dressed as a representative of the Republic and leaning on a bust of Guillaume Thomas Raynal. This Enlightenment philosopher was notably known for denouncing slavery and colonial violence.

This depiction differs from images that at the time reduced Black people to servant roles or exotic figures. Belley is presented as a fully fledged French political leader. His journey recalls why the recognition of Black figures in French history remains essential, alongside contemporary debates concerning figures such as Kemi Seba.

Arrest under the Consulate and death in detention

The situation changed radically with Napoleon Bonaparte’s rise to power. In Saint-Domingue, Toussaint Louverture gradually established himself as the leading political and military figure. Slavery remained abolished and the colony officially remained French, but its autonomy became increasingly apparent. In 1801, a Constitution named him governor for life.

Jean-Baptiste Belley did not side with Toussaint Louverture, whose power he considered excessive. He even advised Bonaparte to send a military expedition. Tasked in 1801 with reorganizing the Saint-Domingue gendarmerie, he returned to the colony with the expedition led by Charles Leclerc.

Secret instructions prepared before departure, however, provided for the gradual disarmament of the Black population and for preventing high-ranking Black officers from remaining in Saint-Domingue. Belley landed at Cap on February 11, 1802, and began his assignment. Two months later, in April, he was dismissed and then arrested.

Sent back to France, he was imprisoned in the citadel of Le Palais, on Belle-Île-en-Mer, off the coast of Brittany. On May 20, 1802, a colonial law maintained slavery in colonies where the abolition of 1794 had not been effectively implemented. In Saint-Domingue, the law did not restore it legally, but war resumed and the French expedition ultimately failed. On January 1, 1804, Haiti declared its independence.

Jean-Baptiste Belley remained a prisoner on Belle-Île-en-Mer. After three years in detention, he died there at around the age of 58, without regaining his freedom or seeing Saint-Domingue again. His story connects the experience of slavery, revolutionary promises, parliamentary action, and the setbacks of colonial power. It also shows how the links between Africa, diasporas, and historical memory continue to shape contemporary debates, including those surrounding pan-African activism.

FAQ on Jean-Baptiste Belley

Who was Jean-Baptiste Belley?

Jean-Baptiste Belley was a former enslaved man who became a free man, soldier, and representative of Saint-Domingue. Admitted to the National Convention in February 1794, he is considered the first Black member of parliament in French history.

What role did he play in the abolition of slavery?

Elected to represent Saint-Domingue alongside Louis-Pierre Dufay and Jean-Baptiste Mills, he was part of the delegation admitted to the National Convention shortly before the February 4, 1794 vote abolishing slavery in the French colonies.

Why was Jean-Baptiste Belley imprisoned?

In 1802, after joining the French expedition to Saint-Domingue to reorganize the gendarmerie, he was dismissed and then arrested. He was transferred to Belle-Île-en-Mer, where he died after three years of imprisonment.