Jean-Baptiste du Casse

Lieutenant général des armées navales Jean-Baptiste du Casse was a French Navy officer, privateer, slave trader and colonial administrator who served as the first governor of Saint-Domingue from 1691 to 1700. Born on 2 August 1646 in Saubusse, France to a Huguenot family, du Casse enlisted in the French merchant navy before joining the French East India Company and the Compagnie du Sénégal. He subsequently joined the French navy and took part in several victorious expeditions during the Nine Years' War in the West Indies and South America.