French Consulate

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Organization Timeline

Leclerc expedition arrives as France moves to reassert control

📅 29 January 1802

A French expedition commanded by Charles Leclerc reached Cap-Français to reassert metropolitan authority over Saint-Domingue and displace Louverture’s autonomous government. Napoleon’s government...

French law maintains slavery in colonies where abolition had not taken effect

📅 20 May 1802

Napoleon’s law maintained slavery in colonies returned to France where the 1794 abolition had not been implemented. Its wording did not itself reinstate slavery in Saint-Domingue, where abolition...

French forces capture Toussaint Louverture and deport him from Saint-Domingue

📅 7 June 1802

After negotiations and military reversals, French forces arrested Louverture and sent him to France, where he was imprisoned at Fort de Joux. His removal did not end resistance. Reports of French...

Consular order restores slavery through “quarter conscription”

📅 7 December 1802

On 7 December 1802, the consuls issued an order that reimposed slavery in French Guiana through a system euphemistically called “quarter conscription.” It treated Black people on plantations or in...