Étienne Mentor Explained

Étienne Victor Mentor (26 December 1771 in Saint-Pierre, Martinique  - after 1804) was a politician from Martinique who served and represented Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) in the French parliament from 1797-1799.^[1]

He was adjutant-general when elected a member of the Council of Five Hundred on 22 Germinal V year of the Republic, by 56 votes of 74 voters. He made a speech expressing the attachment of the negro population to the Republic and their fidelity to the Constitution of Year III. On 30 July 1798 he spoke to demand payment of amounts due to the settlers or refugees deported, on 16 October to demonstrate for the abolition of slavery and request the deletion of claims relating to the sale of slaves, on 28 April 1799 to denounce Perrotin, another deputy for Saint-Domingue, who had called the British to the island.^[2] He voted, as the coup d'État of 18 Brumaire neared, the motion that the "fatherland was in danger", and was expelled from the legislature on the 18th of Brumaire. Exiled in Paris, he obtained permission to travel to the colonies, and in 1801 sailed from Brest. During this trip, he rescued a sailor lost overboard. He returned to France in 1803, and was able to stay on condition of remaining thirty leagues from Paris. Back in Haiti in 1804, he became aide-de-camp to Jean-Jacques Dessalines, then passed under the command of Alexandre Pétion. No further news of him is found thereafter.^{[3] [4] [5] [6]}

Published speeches

• Observations d'Étienne Mentor et Jean-Louis Annecy, députés de Saint-Domingue, sur l'opinion du citoyen Brothier, membre du Conseil des Anciens de Jean-Louis Annecy. An VI de la République (= 1798)
• Dernier mot d'Étienne Mentor, représentant du peuple,... à Étienne Bruix, ministre de la Marine et des colonies. 21 ventôse, An VII de la République (= 1799)
• Demande adressée aux représentants du peuple composant le Conseil des Cinq-Cents, par Étienne Mentor, élu représentant du peuple par l'Assemblée électorale de Saint-Domingue tenue au Cap français, le 20 germinal. An V de la République, en vue d'être admis au Conseil des Cinq-Cents de Étienne Mentor (1797)

Notes and References

1. Shelby Thomas McCloy The Negro in France 1973 "Finally there was Etienne Victor Mentor, Negro deputy to the Council of the Five Hundred from Santo Domingo, who was expelled from the Legislative Corps and from Paris after Napoleon's coup d'etat of 18 Brumaire."
2. Révolution française, ou Analyse complette et impartiale du Moniteur Page 327 1802 "Perrotin, élu député par Saint-Domingue. An VII. Est dénoncé par Mentor, comme ayant appelé les Anglais dans la Colonie"
3. http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/sycomore/fiche.asp?num_dept=15806 Biographie extraite du Dictionnaire des parlementaires français de 1789 à 1889 (A. Robert et G. Cougny)
4. Christopher Leslie Brown, Philip D. Morgan, Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition - Arming slaves: from classical times to the modern age 2006 Page 249 "But others sought redress from the Republic they had served loyally during the previous years, writing to a deputy named Etienne Mentor — an homme de couleur from Martinique who represented Saint-Domingue in the Parliament at the time."
5. Pamela J. Stewart, Andrew Strathern - Anthropology and consultancy: issues and debates 2005 Page 188 "The parliamentary group had been elected solely by the electoral assemblies in the north of Saint-Domingue, and was made up of twelve representatives following the admission of Etienne Mentor to the Council of Five Hundred, ..."
6. James P. P. Horn, Jan Lewis, Peter S. Onuf -The revolution of 1800: democracy, race, and the new republic 2002 Page 296 "But there were others as well, notably the free coloreds Étienne Mentor and Pierre Thomany, who served in the Conseil ... Mentor was allied with a number of metropolitan Republicans, most notably Étienne Laveaux, who as an officer in ."