Rigaud, André (1761–1811)

André Rigaud (b. 1761; d. 18 September 1811), Haitian general. A mulatto born in Les Cayes, Haiti, and educated in Bordeaux, France, Rigaud trained as a goldsmith and began his military career serving the French during the American Revolution. At the height of the Haitian Revolution, he was appointed commander in the South, where he reestablished prosperity and gained mulatto support through harsh but effective rule. His superiors in Port-au-Prince found him resistant to their direction, but depended heavily on his control over mulattoes and his excellent military skills against the British. In 1799 he entered into a power struggle with the black leader and national hero Toussaint Louverture that resulted in Rigaud's defeat and exile to France. He returned to Haiti in 1810.

See alsoHaiti .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Theodore Lothrop Stoddard, The French Revolution in San Domingo (1914).

Cyril L. R. James, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution, 2d ed. (1963).

Ralph Korngold, Citizen Toussaint (1965).

Victor Schoelcher, Vie de Toussaint Louverture (1982).

Robert Louis Stein, Léger Félicité Sonthonax. The Lost Sentinel of the Republic (1985).

Additional Bibliography

Heinl, Robert Debs, Nancy Gordon Heinl, and Michael Heinl. Written in Blood: The Story of the Haitian People, 1492–1995. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2005.

Nicholls, David. From Dessalines to Duvalier: Race, Colour, and National Independence in Haiti. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996.

                                        Philippe L. Seiler