Career
He was a lawyer and writer with a career in public office in France, Martinique, and Saint-Domingue (now the Republic of Haiti). He is best known for his publications on Saint Domingue and Martinique. There, he argued that colonial law, drafted in France, was not fitting for the realities of the French Caribbean.
He was influenced by the scientific projects of the Enlightenment.
In his roles in the French parliament and on the colonial Governing Boards, he sought to maintain an economic system based on slave labor. To this end, he pursued the rights of colonists — mostly white planters — and sought a degree of self-determination for the French Caribbean.