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1811-09-18

Rigaud dies, by Saint-Rémy’s account letting himself die of hunger.

Haitian

Absorbed by sorrow, he let himself die of hunger, on 18 September. His virtues, his faults, his prosperities and his misfortunes were as great the one as the other. A wholly antique character, he would have shed luster on any country of the civilized universe. It has been said of him that in India he would have founded an empire. (2) This phrase gives the measure of his ambition, which was long consecrated to the service of liberty. Did a danger appear at any point whatever of the country, the soldier one was most certain to meet in the vanguard was André Rigaud. His fire, more than that of any other, influenced the Independence enjoyed today by the country that gave him birth. One of the first to take up arms, at the voice of Ogé and Chavanne, his arrest and his detention at Port-au-Prince decided and hastened the encampment of Diègue, from which appeared the era of our emancipation.

Source  ·  p. 289 Joseph Saint-Rémy (des Cayes), Pétion et Haïti: étude monographique et historique, tome 5 (Paris: Auguste Durand, 1857), p. 289; English translation, Rasanblaj.