Jean-Baptiste Belley

Jean-Baptiste Belley (1 July 1746/1747 – 6 August 1805) was a French politician. A native of Senegal and formerly enslaved in the colony of Saint-Domingue, in the French West Indies, he was an elected member of the National Convention and the Council of Five Hundred during the French First Republic. He was also known as Mars.

Life

Belley was said to have been born on 1 July in either 1746 or 1747 on the island of Gorée, Senegal, but the precise dates of his birth and death are uncertain. At the age of two, he was sold to slavers sailing for the French colony of Saint-Domingue. With his savings, he later bought his freedom. In 1791, a slave rebellion broke out in Saint-Domingue, sparking chaos across the colony.

As a result of the French Revolution, conflict erupted in Saint-Domingue between Royalists and Republicans in the colony. In 1793, Belley fought as an infantry captain against Royalist forces in Saint-Domingue and was wounded six times. On 24 September 1793, he was one of three deputies elected to the National Convention represented the northern region of Saint-Domingue, together with the mulatto Jean-Baptiste Mills and white Louis-Pierre Dufaÿ, thus becoming the first black deputy to take a seat in the convention. in a speech published under the title The Settlers' Ear, or the Massiac Hotel System Updated by Gouly. He succeeded for a time in maintaining the Republican principle of equality between people in France and in its colonies, whatever their colour. In a 'declaration of fortune' dated at Paris on 10 Vendémiaire, Year 4 of the Republic (viz., 1 October 1795), Belley declares that from the Republic he has only his 'emoluments', that he has bought no property, and that he owns only the contents of his room.

Belley continued to serve into the Council of Five Hundred and was reelected on 8 September 1796. On 5 March 1797, he drew the note stating: "Member of the Council of 500 until this coming May." Belley returned to Saint-Domingue in 1802 as a gendarme officer in the expeditionary force commanded by Divisional-general Charles Leclerc. However, Belley was subsequently arrested and sent back to France, where he was imprisoned under house arrest in Belle Île. Belley was still being held prisoner there in 1805 when he wrote to Isaac Louverture, the son of Toussaint Louverture, and died later the same year on 6 August.

Portrait In about 1797, Belley's portrait was painted by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, and was exhibited in Paris in 1798.