Between 1802 and 1803, several thousand Black and mulatto soldiers who had been captured were executed by drowning in the harbor of Cap-Français, in Saint-Domingue. Orchestrated by Generals Leclerc, Daure, and Rochambeau, these executions reflected a genuine will to exterminate, announcing the definitive rupture between France and its former troops of color, and foreshadowing the independence of Haiti in 1804.
In the autumn of 1802, as the expedition sent by Napoleon Bonaparte to regain control of Saint-Domingue bogged down in war, a series of massacres of extreme cruelty unfolded in the harbor of Cap-Français. Hundreds, sometimes thousands, of Black and mulatto soldiers taken prisoner were loaded onto ships… only to be thrown into the sea. These collective executions, ordered by French generals and carried out systematically between 1802 and 1803, have gone down in history under the name “the drownings of Cap-Français.”
While French historiography long minimized or obscured this episode, Haitian memory retained it as one of the symbols of colonial barbarity. Beyond their horror, these drownings reveal much about the logic of extermination underlying the Consulate’s colonial project: to subdue through terror a population deemed rebellious, to break the Black military leadership, and to restore a slave order abolished only a few years earlier.
1802–1803: Cap-Français, theater of a colonial extermination
The Haitian Revolution broke out in 1791 with the slave uprising, led by Toussaint Louverture and other Black generals. The French National Convention officially abolished slavery in 1794, making Saint-Domingue a “free” colony where former slaves became soldiers of the Republic.
But with the rise to power of Napoleon Bonaparte, ambiguity prevailed. Officially, the First Consul claimed he wished to preserve the gains of the Revolution. In reality, he prepared the restoration of the colonial system—and thus of slavery.
In 1802, a military expedition of about 30,000 men was sent under the command of General Charles Leclerc, Napoleon’s brother-in-law, to retake control of the island and neutralize the Black generals. After bloody fighting, Toussaint Louverture was arrested in June 1802 and deported to France, where he would die the following year. But far from securing peace, his arrest reignited resistance. In the autumn of 1802, officers Pétion and Clerveaux joined the insurrection.
From the moment of his arrival, Leclerc understood that the confrontation could not be won by conventional war alone. In a letter dated October 7, 1802, he wrote that it was necessary to “destroy all the Blacks of the mountains,” sparing only children under twelve.
His successors would extend this logic. Colonial prefect Hector Daure suggested “embarking” the Black and mulatto soldiers who had remained loyal to the Republic. This apparently neutral terminology quickly became a euphemism for executions by drowning.
General Donatien de Rochambeau, who succeeded Leclerc after his death from yellow fever in November 1802, systematized the practice. For him, it was a matter of reducing “useless mouths” and frightening the insurgents through a policy of terror.
In the autumn of 1802, the first drownings struck the 800 indigenous gendarmes and the soldiers of the 7th Colonial Demi-Brigade, accused of treason. They were locked aboard ships, taken into Mancenille Bay, and thrown overboard.
The Black general Jacques Maurepas, who had rallied to France, was arrested with his family. All were drowned in the harbor of Cap-Français, along with his soldiers.
The year 1803 marked an escalation. In February, after a repelled attack, Colonel Médard and his men were executed by drowning.
In the spring and summer, prisoners accumulated in Cap-Français. With food supplies lacking and famine looming, Rochambeau decided to “embark” the captives. The drownings became daily occurrences.
Archives and testimonies allow several specific episodes to be identified:
September 4, 1803: 36 prisoners executed by drowning.
September 23: 30 new prisoners thrown into the sea.
The following night: 15 others met the same fate.
The inhabitant Précour, in a letter, cynically explained that these executions helped reduce food consumption in Cap-Français.
The drownings of Cap-Français are confirmed by several direct witnesses.
Charles Malenfant, a French officer, explicitly compared these executions to those ordered by the Convention member Carrier in Nantes in 1793. He emphasized their systematic character and the absence of any trial.
General Pamphile de Lacroix estimated that 1,000 to 1,100 prisoners were drowned in September 1802. He stressed the terror felt by the crews confronted with these scenes.
General Ramel referred to drownings ranging from 200 to 1,500 prisoners in a single operation, confirming the scale of the massacres.
These converging testimonies, despite numerical discrepancies, establish the reality of the drownings as a mass practice, planned by the French command.
The exact number of victims remains difficult to determine, due to the absence of registers and the use of euphemisms (“embark,” “evacuate”). Estimates vary:
Ramel mentioned 200 to 1,500 victims per drowning.
Pamphile de Lacroix spoke of 1,000 to 1,200 victims in September 1802.
Historian Jean-Pierre Le Glaunec (2014) estimates that several thousand Black and mulatto soldiers were executed between 1802 and 1803.
These figures confirm that the drownings of Cap-Français were not isolated episodes, but a campaign of extermination aimed at annihilating the indigenous military force.
These executions plunged the colony into terror. Even some French officers denounced their cruelty. But for the Black and mulatto insurgents, they reinforced the conviction that France sought not reconciliation, but extermination.
Far from breaking resistance, the drownings fueled hatred and determination among the insurgents. They contributed to the shift of the war in favor of the indigenous troops led by Dessalines, Christophe, and Pétion.
In France, these episodes were long minimized or passed over in silence. In Haiti, by contrast, they remained a symbol of colonial barbarity. Today, they stand among the most striking examples of the brutality of the Napoleonic expedition.
From the drownings at Cap to the Independence of Haiti: the definitive rupture
The drownings of Cap-Français, carried out between 1802 and 1803, constitute one of the darkest episodes in French colonial history. They reflect the logic of extermination that drove the Saint-Domingue expedition: to eliminate Black and mulatto military leaders, to subdue through terror a population deemed uncontrollable, and to prepare the return to slavery.
Beyond the numbers, they symbolize the definitive rupture between France and its former troops of color. Far from extinguishing the revolt, they radicalized resistance and contributed to the final victory of the indigenous army, which would proclaim the independence of Haiti on January 1, 1804.
Little known to the general public, these drownings are a reminder that French colonization was not only made of conquests and legal codes, but also of episodes of extreme violence, whose memory continues to haunt the shores of Cap-Haïtien.
Sources
Leclerc, Charles. Military Correspondence in Saint-Domingue (1802).
Lacroix, Pamphile de. Memoirs Contributing to the History of the Revolution of Saint-Domingue (Paris, 1819).
Ramel, General. Account of the Deportation to Cayenne of the Deputies of Guadeloupe (1824).
Malenfant, Charles. History of the Revolution of Saint-Domingue (1814).
Geggus, David. Haitian Revolutionary Studies (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002).
Dubois, Laurent. Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution (Harvard University Press, 2004).
Summary
1802–1803: Cap-Français, Theater of a Colonial Extermination
From the Drownings at Cap to the Independence of Haiti: The Definitive Rupture
