Cagnet was an African-born (bossale) band commander who served under Spain in the 1790s bearing the self-styled title 'Monseigneur Duc et Pair et Maréchal de France.
' By 1802 he was one of Petit-Noël Prieur's three principal lieutenants at Rivière Salée, praised for 'rare intrepidity. ' But in mid-1803, he split from Petit-Noël, persuaded fellow leader Jacques Tellier to join the French, opened a provisioning market at Petite-Anse to feed Rochambeau's forces, blockaded food to the independence army, and served as a French auxiliary in military operations. Casimir lists him among the bossale commanders considered 'too embarrassing' to commemorate in Haitian national memory.
In the ScholarshipHow historians have read this figure.
How historians and scholars have interpreted this figure across different analytical traditions.
Fick's Making Haiti recovers figures like Cagnet from the colonial records of the 'war within the war' — the complex conflict between different factions of the revolutionary armies that the nationalist historiography's unified uprising narrative obscured. Cagnet appears in Fick's account within the category of resistance figures whose eventual betrayal or co-optation by colonial or competing revolutionary authorities traces one of the war's most morally complex dimensions. Her subaltern methodology situates these figures within the structural pressures that the colonial archive records: the coercion, the impossible choices, and the violence that the occupation's counterinsurgency campaigns deployed against insurgent communities.
Cagnet represents the 'war within the war' figures whose trajectories of betrayal and co-optation Fick recovers from the colonial archive — the moral complexity the nationalist historiography's unified uprising narrative could not accommodate.
TimelineAcross the historical record.
- 1793
Band Commander under Spain
Served Jean-François and Biassou's Spanish-allied rebel forces; self-styled title Monseigneur Duc et Pair et Maréchal de France
- 1802
Lieutenant to Petit-Noël Prieur
One of three principal band chiefs at Rivière Salée under Petit-Noël Prieur
- 1803
French Auxiliary
After defecting, served as auxiliary to Rochambeau's forces; blockaded food to the indigène army
RelationshipsPeople connected to this life.
- Allied withLabruni
Fellow lieutenant under Petit-Noël Prieur at Rivière Salée before the split
- Allied withDonatien-Marie-Joseph de Rochambeau
Bribed by Rochambeau with gifts and colonel rank; served as French auxiliary in his 1803 campaigns
- Allied withJacques Tellier
Persuaded Tellier to join the French; they operated together as French auxiliaries and blockaded the indigène army