André Rigaud Benoit Joseph André Rigaud ( 1761 – 1811 ) was the leading mulatto military leader during the Haïtian Revolution . Among his protégés were Alexandre Pétion and Jean - Pierre Boyer , both future presidents of Haïti . Early life . Rigaud was born on 17 January 1761 in Les Cayes , to André Rigaud , a wealthy French planter , and Rose Bossy Depa , a slave woman . His father acknowledged the mixed - race ( mulatto ) boy as his at a young age , and sent him to Bordeaux , where he was trained as a goldsmith . André Rigaud was known to have the coarse hair of an African but the skin tone of a European . He wore a soft - haired wig to be more accepted . The revolutionary . After returning to Saint - Domingue from France , Rigaud became active in politics ; he was a successor to Vincent Ogé and Julien Raimond as a champion of the interests of free people of color in Saint - Domingue ( as colonial Haïti was known ) . Rigaud aligned himself with revolutionary France and with an interpretation of the Rights of Man that ensured the civil equality of all free people . By the mid - 1790s with slave uprisings in the North , Rigaud was leading an army , a force in the West and South departments . He was given authority to govern by Étienne Polverel , one of the three French Civil Commissioners who had abolished slavery in Saint - Domingue in 1793 . Rigaud ' s power came from his influence with the mulatto planters , found mostly in the South . They were fearful of the masses of former slaves ; Rigaud ' s army also contained blacks and whites . In the South and West , from 1793 to 1798 , Rigaud helped defeat a British invasion and re - establish the plantation economy . Although Rigaud respected Toussaint Louverture , the leading general of the former black slaves of the North , and his superior rank in the French Revolutionary Army , he did not want to concede power in the South to him . Rigaud continued to believe in Saint - Domingue ' s race - based caste system which put mulattoes just below whites while leaving blacks at the bottom , a belief that put him at odds with Toussaint L ' Ouverture . This led to the bitter " War of the Knives " ( " La Guerre des Couteaux " ) in June 1799 , when Toussaint ' s army invaded Rigaud ' s territory . Comte d ' Hédouville , sent by France to govern the island , encouraged Rigaud ' s rivalry with Toussaint . In 1800 , Rigaud left Saint - Domingue for France after his defeat by Toussaint Louverture . Leclerc expedition . Rigaud returned to Saint - Domingue in 1802 with the expedition of General Charles Leclerc , Napoleon ' s brother - in - law . He was sent to unseat Toussaint and re - establish French colonial rule and slavery in Saint - Domingue . After the First French Republic abolished slavery in the colony in 1794 , following the first slave uprising , the colonial system based on exports of commodities from sugar cane and coffee plantations had been undermined . Sugar production fell markedly , and many surviving white and mulatto planters left the island as refugees . Many emigrated to the United States , where they settled in southern cities such as Charleston and New Orleans . LeClerc was initially successful , capturing and deporting Toussaint , but Toussaint ' s officers led the opposition by Haitian indigenous troops ; they fought on for two more years . Defeated by disease as well as Haitian resistance , France withdrew its 7 , 000 surviving troops in November 1803 ; they were less than one - third of the forces that had been sent there . Jean - Jacques Dessalines , a black from the North , led Saint - Domingue to victory and independence , declaring the new name of the nation as Haiti . He ultimately declared himself as emperor . Rigaud returned to France after the failure of the expedition in 1802 - 1803 . For a time he was held a prisoner in Fort de Joux , the same fortress as his rival Toussaint , where the latter died in 1803 . Final expedition . Rigaud returned to Haiti a third time in December 1810 . He established himself as " President of the Department of the South " , in opposition to both Alexandre Pétion , a mulatto and former ally in the South , and Henri Christophe , a black who took power in the North . Shortly after Rigaud ' s death the following year , Pétion recovered power over the South . Rigaud ' s tomb is on a small hill between Camp - Perrin and Les Cayes , which is now split in half to make a new road to ease transport .