Career
Like some other slave leaders, he fought with the Spanish royalists against the French Revolutionary authorities in colonial Haiti. During this period, he had Jeannot put to death for excessive cruelty in warfare. (Jean-François was the one who executed Jeannot According to the Haitian Historian Thomas Madiou, Jean-François did not execute Jeannot for his cruelties but because he began to undermine his authorities).
He withdrew from Santo Domingo in 1795 and moved with his family to Florida, which was then part of the Spanish colony of Cuba.
In Florida, Biassou changed his first name to Jorge. Spanish leaders put him in charge of the black militia in Florida.
Florida had provided refuge for both planters and slaves during the American Revolution.