Antoine Richepanse

Antoine Richepanse (25 March 1770 – 3 September 1802) was a French military officer and colonial administrator. Richepanse was born in Metz as the son of an officer of the Conti-Dragoon Regiment. When the French Revolution started Richepanse distinguished himself in the early battles of the French Revolutionary War, and by 1794, he had been promoted to général de brigade.

Fighting at Siegburg (June 1796) and Altenkirchen, he was promoted to général de division. In 1797 he fought in the Army of Sambre-et-Meuse under the command of Hoche. Richepanse distinguished himself in the Neuwied, where the Austrians lost 8000 men, 27 cannons and 7 colors. In 1800, he was part of the Army of the Rhine under Moreau, which defeated the Austrians at Hohenlinden in which he played a conspicuous part.

In 1801, Richepanse was appointed by Napoleon as the governor of Guadeloupe. He was given command of a expeditionary force which was dispatched to Guadeloupe to restore French authority in the colony. After Richepanse arrived on the island, Napoleon reinstated slavery throughout the French colonial empire in 1802, which led to a battle breaking out between Richepanse's troops and Black insurgents resisting the reintroduction of slavery on May 10. Although the insurgents were initially led by veteran officer Magloire Pélage, he quickly switched sides and joined Richepanse, with the position of insurgent leader passing to Louis Delgrès. French troops under Richepanse's command, consisting of 3,000 white soldiers and 600 Black infantrymen under Pélage's command, eventually drove Delgrès's forces into Fort Saint Charles, where they committed mass suicide by detonating the fort's gunpowder stores on 28 May.

Richepanse, having lost 40% of his men either to combat or illness, officially implemented Napoleon's reintroduction of slavery in Guadeloupe on 16 July, and for months afterwards carried out a brutal counterinsurgency campaign to root out remaining insurgents. Richepanse's campaign quickly became notorious for its brutality and "even his own lieutenants denounced [it] in their reports". French troops committed numerous atrocities during the campaign, including summary executions and large-scale massacres. This led to the deaths of thousands of Black people, and 5,000 were deported to other French colonies. Not long after his arrival in Guadeloupe, he contracted yellow fever from which he died at Basse-Terre on 3 September 1802.