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Louis Delgrès (2 August 1766 – 28 May 1802) was a leader of the movement inGuadeloupe resisting reoccupation and thus the reinstitution ofslavery byNapoleonic France in 1802.[1]
Delgrès was born a freemulatto inSaint-Pierre,Martinique.[2] It is supposed that he was the natural son of theMétis woman Élisabeth Morin and Louis Delgrès, the Director-General of the Royal Domains inTobago.
Delgrès joined the colonial militia in November 1783 and was soon made a sergeant in the Martinique garrison. He fought for France against Great Britain in the Caribbean, and was captured and imprisoned with other French soldiers inPortchester Castle.
After his release and his return to the Caribbean, Delgrès took over the resistance movement fromMagloire Pélage [fr] after it became evident that Pélage was loyal toNapoleon. Delgrès believed that the "tyrant" Napoleon had betrayed both the ideals of theRepublic and the interests of France's colored citizens, and intended to fight to the death. TheJacobin government had granted the slaves their freedom, inGuadeloupe and the other French colonies, but Napoleon reinstated slavery throughout the French Empire in 1802.[3]
The French army, led byRichepanse, drove Delgrès into Fort Saint Charles, which was held by formerly enslaved Guadeloupeans. After realizing that he could not prevail and refusing to surrender, Delgrès was left with roughly 1000 men and some women. At the Battle of Matouba on 28 May 1802, Delgrès and some of his followers ignited their gunpowder stores, committing suicide in the process, in an attempt to kill as many of the French troops as possible.[4] One of his followers was the pregnant heroineSolitude, who was captured by the French and executed after the birth of her child. In the fictional account of her life by André Schwarz-Bart, her last words were "live free or die", which became the mantra of the resistance movement, and today in poems, songs, libraries, historical markers, museums and statues, symbolizes the spirit of the country.[5]
In April 1998, Delgrès was officially admitted to theFrench Panthéon, although the actual location of his remains is unknown.[1] Delgrès' memorial is opposite that ofToussaint Louverture, leader of theHaitian Revolution, the location of whose remains is also a mystery.
In 2002, the bicentenary of the rebellion, a memorial to Delgrès was erected atBasse-Terre.[6]
He is honoured in street names inMenilmontant, Paris;Vaureal,Val d'Oise; and atSaint-Francois,Petit-Canal and Basse-Terre in Guadeloupe.
The contemporary French Caribbeanblues trio Delgres is named after Delgrès.[7]
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