250 men of color under Chavanne disarm the whites of Grande-Rivière

History. Jean-Baptiste Chavanne, the companion of Ogé, was born at the Grande-Rivière du Nord. He was a man of color and a landowning cultivator. He advised Ogé to rouse all the plantation work gangs in 1790, to proclaim general liberty, and to destroy colonial pride at a single stroke. Ogé shrank from this gigantic project. Chavanne nevertheless promised to die with him. The men of color, 250 in number, took up arms, disarmed the whites of the Grande-Rivière on 24 October 1790, and demanded of Governor de Peinier the execution of the decree of 28 March 1790, which Ogé had helped to have passed in favor of free men of color. General Vincent, at the head of 800 troops from the Cap, attacked them vigorously, but he was beaten and had to return to the Cap with the remnants of his force. A price was then set on Ogé’s head. Colonel Cambefort, of the regiment of the Cap, came to attack him with 3,000 men, artillery, cavalry and 200 armed Black men. Ogé could not struggle long against forces superior in number and better drilled; he abandoned the ground and withdrew to the summit of the…

Rouzier tells this under the entry Grande-Rivière du Nord (la).