Victor Hugues Victor Hugues ( born in Marseille July 20 , 1762 and died in Cayenne August 12 , 1826 ) was a French politician and colonial administrator during the French Revolution , who governed Guadeloupe from 1794 to 1798 , emancipating the island ' s slaves under orders from the National Convention . Early life and appointment . Jean Baptiste " Victor " Hugues was born to a rich family of Marseille ' s bourgeoisie , son of Jean - François Hugues 1725 - 1789 , a salesman , and Catherine Fodrin 1729 - 1822 , issued from a family of silk traders of Saint - Étienne . The family settled as colonists in Saint - Domingue at the beginning of the 1780s , but Victor was forced to return to France because of the Haitian Revolution . He then appointed Procureur of the Comité de salut public in La Rochelle with the support of the local Jacobin Club . He was subsequently appointed governor of Guadeloupe , where he was ordered to apply the emancipation decrees which declared the end of slavery in all French territories in February 1794 . Conflicts with Great Britain and the United States . Following the signing of the Whitehall Accord by ( representing Guadeloupe ) , a British task force successfully invaded the island in April 1794 . The planters and other Royalists had signed the Whitehall Accord with the British and colluded with France ' s rival as a way of rejecting revolutionary events , particularly the abolition of slavery . When Hugues disembarked on 21 May 1794 , he had a small force of 1 , 150 soldiers . He immediately declared an end to slavery and so rallied the slaves and " gens de couleur " . Within five days he took the capital , Pointe - à - Pitre . Hugues was able to retake the island by 6 October 1794 , when he obliged the English general to surrender in his camp of Barville with his whole force , in which were comprised 800 French emigres and 900 soldiers of African descent . Even though he abolished chattel slavery , he still maintained a system of unpaid obligatory work . He reorganised the army , recruiting a large number of African former slaves , until his armed force amounted to around 10 , 000 men . Soldiers of both African and European descent were integrated into the same units with no racial distinctions . He ruled for four years before being recalled to France and was replaced by General Edme Desfourneaux . During that time , he purged the island of counter - revolutionaries , using a guillotine brought from France , and also worked to create a viable post - slavery regime , in which the island ' s farms and plantations still functioned . Hugues is perhaps best known for authorizing privateers to attack shipping through the Caribbean , which brought great wealth to the island but also was part of the tensions between France and the United States ( known as the " Quasi - War " in American history ) . With an army composed of White , Mulatto and ex - slave soldiers , Hugues worked to export the revolution to neighboring islands , including Dominica , Saint - Martin , la Grenade , Saint - Vincent and Saint Lucia . Guiana . In 1799 , Hugues was envoyed to French Guiana by the French Consulate , where he was responsible for legislating unfree labour , and then slavery itself . He remained an administrator under the early years First Empire , but was forced out by a provincial maneuver of the Napoleonic Wars , when Portugal invaded the colony . Upon his return , he was prosecuted for treason and conspiracy with the enemy . Acquitted in 1814 , he returned to Guiana in 1817 , served as governor and then stayed on as a private citizen .