Victor Hugues (1761, 1826) is a French revolutionist which controlled the Guadeloupe 1794 with 1798, émancipant the slaves of the island under the orders of the national Convention French.

Hugues was born with Marseilles in 1761 and was a colonist with Saint-Domingue of end 1780 at beginning 1790, where it impregnated revolutionary principles. He turned over in France following the disorders in the island and became prosecutor under the orders of the Comité of Public Hello, with Brest and La Rochelle. After the decrees of emancipation of Leger-Happiness Sonthonax and Etienne Polverel in Saint-Domingue, National Convention declared the abolition of slavery in all the French territories in February 1794, and named Hugues national police chief in Guadeloupe.

The island was under English control when it arrived at the the Caribbean, because the white growers and other colonists had invited the imperial rival with the help in order to avoid the effects of the revolutionary ideas and the abolition of slavery. But by rejoining the free coloured men and the slaves, Hugues succeeds in taking again the island.

He controlled during four years, before being recalled in France in December 1798 by the Directoire. During this time, it purged the island of the counter-revolutionaries, using a Guillotine sent France. And he also worked to create a viable post-slave economic mode in which the plantations and dwellings continued to function, in particular via work " forcé" former slaves.

Hugues, by authorizing the corsairs French to attack the American vessels, allowed the contribution of many richnesses the island but worsened a crisis between the the United States and France, known under the name of " Quasi war " in the United States.

Thanks to a made up army white soldiers, mulattos and former slaves, Hugues worked to export the revolution in the close islands, in particular the Dominique, Saint Martin's day, the Grenade, Saint-Vincent and St Lucia.

In 1799, Victor Hugues was sent in Guyana as police chief of the Consulat, where it establishes the forced labor then restores slavery. But it had to leave Guyana in precipitately 1809 following the invasion of the Portuguese and was shown of treason and incapacity. He was discharged in 1814 and turned over in 1817 to Guyana, as governor then ordinary citizen. He returned to France, with Bordeaux in 1826, where he died.

External references

• the French revolution in the Caribbean and slavery in the Age of Enlightenment
• the Mission : play of Heiner Müller to the editions of Midnight.