1871 – Death of Jean-Baptiste Belley, Haitian Revolutionary and French Politician

Jean-Baptiste Belley, a former slave turned revolutionary leader and French legislator, died on May 11, 1871. Born in Senegal and enslaved in Saint-Domingue (Haiti), Belley gained his freedom and fought in the Haitian Revolution. He became the first Black man elected to the French National Convention in 1794, advocating for the abolition of slavery in France’s colonies. Belley’s portrait—depicting him with the bust of Enlightenment thinker Guillaume-Thomas Raynal—became an iconic image of Black liberation and intellectual equality. Though largely forgotten by mainstream European history, Belley\’s life bridged colonial resistance, Enlightenment philosophy, and revolutionary action. His death on May 11 offers an occasion to reflect on early Black political agency within European power structures.