Jean-Baptiste Belley

Jean-Baptiste Belley (c. 1746 – 1805) was a native of Senegal and former slave from Saint-Domingue in the French West Indies who during the period of the French Revolution became a member of the National Convention and the Council of Five Hundred of France. He was also known as Mars.Hall, Catherine, [http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/paper/hall.html Review of "The Birth of the Modern World 1780–1914: Global Connections and Comparisons", by C. A. Bayly] online at history.ac.uk, accessed 7 August 2008]

Life

Belley was said to have been born on 1 July 1746 or 1747 on the island of Gorée, Senegal, but the dates of his birth and death are uncertain. At the age of two, he was sold to slavers sailing for the French colony of Saint-Domingue. With his savings, he later bought his freedom.

In 1791, the enslaved Africans of Saint-Domingue began the Haitian Revolution, aimed at the overthrow of the colonial regime. As their fellow revolutionaries in France thought through the Declaration of the Rights of Man of 1789, they began to see that slavery would need to be abolished.

In 1793, Bellay was a Captain of infantry, fought against the colonists of Saint-Domingue and was six times wounded. On 24 September 1793, he was one of three members ("deputés") elected to the French National Convention by the northern region of Saint-Domingue, together with Jean-Baptiste Mills, a mulatto, and Louis-Pierre Dufaÿ, a European, thus becoming the first black deputy to take a seat in the Convention.(French) " [http://www.histoire-image.org/site/etude_comp/etude_comp_detail.php?analyse_id=737 Jean-Baptiste Belley, député de Saint-Domingue à la Convention] " at histoire-image.org, accessed 7 August 2008] On 3 February 1794, he spoke in a debate in the Convention when it decided unanimously to abolish slavery.

However, the formal abolition of slavery did not disarm the European colonists' supporters, and although he was recognized as a full citizen of the Republic, Belley had to struggle against racist insinuations. He was an active spokesman for people of colour. When Benoît Gouly, a pro-slavery deputy from Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, called for special laws for the colonies, Belley denounced a pressure group of colonists meeting at the Hôtel Massiac [The club of reactionary colonial proprietors meeting since July 1789 at the Hôtel Massiac werere opposed to representation in the Assemblée of france's overseas dominions, for fear "that this would expose delicate colonial issues to the hazards of debate in the Assembly," as Robin Blackburn expressed it (Blackburn, "The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery, 1776-1848" (1988:174f). These opponents of the anti-slavery "Amis des Noirs" included Pierre-Victor Malouet, a leader of the "monarchiens", and Moreau de Saint-Méry, President of the Electors of Paris, who received the keys to the fallen Bastille, which were later presented to another slaveholder, George Washington (noted by Blackburn, 174).] in a speech published under the title "Le Bout d'oreille des colons, ou le système de l’Hôtel Massiac mis à jour par Gouly" ["The planters' cloven hoof revealed, or the Hôtel Massiac project published by Gouly". The "ear-tip", the "bout d'oreille" of the title, refers to La Fontaine's couplet, from "L'Ane vêtu d'une Peau de Lion" ("The Ass Dressed in a Lion Skin"): "Un petit bout d'oreille, echappé par malheur, / Découvrit la fourbe et l'erreur..." (A small bit of ear-tip, unluckily escaped, uncovered the ruse and the error...).] He succeeded for a time in maintaining the Republican principle of equality between people in France and in its colonies, whatever their colour.

In a declaration of age and marital status for the representatives of Saint-Domingue in the Convention, Belley says that he was born at Goré, is forty-eight years old, has never left the territory of the Republic, and has lived forty six years at Cap-Français.(French) [http://www.histoire-image.org/site/oeuvre/zoom.php?oeuvre_id=1305 Declaration of age and marital status] , manuscript conserved at the "Centre historique des Archives nationales", Paris, photograph online at histoire-image.org, accessed 7 August 2008] In a 'declaration of fortune' dated at Paris on 10 Vendémiaire, Year 4 of the Republic ("viz.", 1 October 1795), Belley declares that from the Republic he has only his 'emoluments', that he has bought no property, and that he owns only the contents of his room. [(French) [http://www.histoire-image.org/site/oeuvre/zoom.php?oeuvre_id=1306 Declaration of fortune] , manuscript conserved at the "Centre historique des Archives nationales", Paris, photograph online at histoire-image.org, accessed 7 August 2008]

Belley remained as a Convention member until 1797, when he lost his seat. He returned to Saint-Domingue with Charles Leclerc's expedition of 1802 as an officer of gendarmes, but he was arrested, sent back to France and imprisoned in the fortress of Belle Île. He was still being held prisoner there in 1805 when he wrote to Isaac Louverture, the son of Toussaint Louverture. He died later the same year.

Portrait

In about 1797, Belley's portrait was painted by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson (1767–1824), a former pupil of Jacques-Louis David, and was exhibited in Paris in 1798. In this painting, Girodet evokes the tensions of the period. Belley, standing, wears the uniform of a Convention member, with a tropical landscape behind him. His elbow rests on a bust of the philosopher Guillaume-Thomas Raynal (1713–1796), author of "A Philosophical and Political History of the Settlements and Trade of the Europeans in the East and West Indies" (1770). ["L'histoire philosophique et politique des établissements et du commerce des Européens dans les deux Indes" (1770)] Raynal, who had just died, had been a supporter of the abolition of slavery. What is remarkable about the portrait is that Belley, an African, is painted by a European artist in an aristocratic or even royal style, apparently asserting the principle of equality. [http://www.safran-arts.com/42day/art/art4dec/art1208.html Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy~Trioson] at safran-arts.com, accessed 7 August 2008]
However, in an age witnessing the dominance of European Neoclassicism, wherein depictions of the nude male form were modelled on and made explicit reference to the Classical (Ancient Greek and Roman) aesthetic ideal [cite video|people = Chris Rodley, Dev Varma, Kate Williams III (Directors) Marilyn Milgrom, Grant Romer, Rolf Borowczak, Bob Guccione, Dean Kuipers (Cast)|date2 = 2006-03-07|title = Pornography: The Secret History of Civilization|url = http://www.kochvision.com/product.aspx?number=741952635291|medium = DVD|publisher = Koch Vision|location = Port Washington, NY|accessdate = 2006-10-21|isbn = 1-4172-2885-7] [cite web| title = Herm of Dionysos| publisher = The Getty Museum, J.Paul Getty Trust| url = http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=9917| accessdate = 2006-10-19] cite web| last = Adams | first = Cecil| title = Why does so much ancient Greek art feature males with small genitalia?| work = The Straight Dope| publisher = Chicago Reader| date = 9 December 2005| url = http://www.straightdope.com/columns/051209.html| accessdate = 2006-10-19] the prominence given over, in de Roussy-Trioson's portrait, to displaying what is clearly a large penis in the sitter's breeches is a direct reinforcement and perpetuation of the Classical and since long-held notional correlation of savagery, animalistic tendancies and barbarity. Contemporary viewers of the portrait would have understood immediately the juxtaposition of aristocratic apparel on the body (and by corollary, the mind and spirit) of a individual from a race of people commonly viewed "by native population of the time" as uncivilised.The portrait therefore can more properly be seen also to reflect the then century-long held idea of the noble savage.

This seemingly remarkable but actually negative portrait should be reassessed and contrasted with royal portraitist Thomas Gainsborough's far less negatively judgemental examination of Belley's near-contemporary and former slave, Ignatius Sancho (1729–1780).

The portrait was used for the dust cover of C. A. Bayly's book "The Birth of the Modern World 1780–1914: Global Connections and Comparisons" (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004).

A drawing by Girodet for the portrait in ink and black chalk is in the Art Institute of Chicago, the restricted gift of the Joseph and Helen Regenstein Foundation, 1973. [Southgate, M. Therese, "Jean-Baptiste Belley" in "Journal of the American Medical Association" Vol. 296, No. 2, July 12, 2006, [http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/296/2/144 extract] online at jama.ama-assn.org, accessed 7 August 2008]

References

External links

* [http://www.abcgallery.com/D/david/girodet8.html Portrait of Belley] at abcgallery.com