Pierre, Marquis de Fayet

"I could not raise a hand to hurt a fly. But the Overseers have every right to discipline as they see fit."

―De Fayet to Bastienne Josèphe, 1735.

Pierre, Marquis de Fayet (1675 – 1737) was a French aristocrat and Governor-General of Saint-Domingue from 1732 until his death.

Biography

Governor of Saint-Domingue

De Fayet was born into a respected family with few land claims. After a long and distinguished career with the French Navy, for which he was recognized for his leadership capabilities, de Fayet was rewarded with the appointment of Governor-General of Saint-Domingue on 8 October 1732. Leaving his wife and children in France, he hoped that a brief tenure as governor would earn him respect, power, and wealth with which he could return home and retire gracefully.

De Fayet quickly became an acquaintance of Bastienne Josèphe, frequenting her brothel La Dame en Rose and occasionally supplying information to her secret intelligence network. Under de Fayet's rule, the slave population of Saint-Domingue grew to 2,000, thrice the number of European colonists living there. Production of cash crops on plantations increased along with political instability. Despite the great profit under de Fayet, his tenure was also one of brutality.

Fighting the Maroons

"It is their animal nature. Violence is the only currency that motivates them. Like coin, to you. If you want to protect your African friends, spread the word. Quiet them down. Otherwise..."

―De Fayet to Bastienne Josèphe, regarding Saint-Domingue's slaves, 1735.

When the Assassin Adéwalé arrived in Port-au-Prince in 1735, de Fayet was attempting to use Bastienne as a go-between to negotiate a deal with Maroon resistance leader Augustin Dieufort to keep violence down, giving her a letter which outlined conditions for which they could sue for peace. Bastienne, in turn, directed Adéwalé to deliver the Governor's letter to Dieufort.

Adéwalé's arrival at the Maroon hideout coincided with an ambush of overseers, leading both men to suspect that the Governor was a "two-faced liar". Not long after this, de Fayet hosted a soirée with several guests from the French Geodesic Mission, including scientist and smuggler Louis Godin. It was here that Godin told de Fayet that the expedition would cost more than what they had initially calculated.

De Fayet meeting with Louis Godin

Although Pierre accused Godin of misappropriating funds, he agreed to lend additional support after Godin convinced him that the expedition would make it easier for him to import slaves, which made him do business with local slave sellers, so that he could instruct slaves, something that the Code Noir considered illegal. He also warned Godin not to offend his Spanish chaperons, as they needed Spain as an ally against the British Empire. De Fayet was also briefly relieved from his duties by Étienne Cochard de Chastenoy.

In 1737, in response to the growing Maroon resistance, de Fayet began dealing out harsher punishments to rebellious slaves, and issued strict military curfews every night. Abandoning all pretense of diplomacy, he told Bastienne that any act of violence by the Maroon resistance would be responded to in kind. When Adéwalé and Augustin dismissed this warning, the French Navy scuttled a slave ship that the Maroons were about to liberate. Ultimately, this had the opposite effect of what de Fayet intended; instead of breaking the rebels' spirit, it outraged them and prompted Adéwalé to mark him for assassination.

Death

Adéwalé: "I have killed many men on principle, but never have I wanted one to suffer as much as you - to understand what it is to gasp and beg for your life, like the innocents you drowned!"

De Fayet: "You mean those slaves? That ship? But they are not even human! Without the discipline and guidance of their masters, they turn to rebellion, murder, like you."

—De Fayet's dying words, 1737.

After his troops captured a Maroon rebel, de Fayet brutally tortured him for information on the location of the Maroon hideout, burning him with a branding iron when he refused to talk. It was at this moment that Adéwalé, who had infiltrated the Governor's mansion, fired his blunderbuss, killing five guards. This prompted de Fayet to flee to a guard post, where he made a final stand accompanied by his best troops. Adéwalé's rage, coupled with his ferocious fighting style, enabled him to cut down the soldiers.

De Fayet's final moments

De Fayet then proceeded to attack Adéwalé with the branding iron, but the Assassin was able to disarm and impale him with the iron. As de Fayet lay dying, Adéwalé plunged his machete into his stomach, taking enjoyment in inflicting the same pain on the Governor that he had inflicted on countless slaves. With his dying words, de Fayet asserted that slaves were subhuman and would naturally turn to rebellion and murder without their masters' guidance, but Adéwalé dismissed his words and finished him off.

Personality and traits

"Even free labor is not free, friend. Slaves are expensive to replace. The poor beasts expire before they can reproduce."

―De Fayet to Louis Godin, 1735.

Though he appeared on the surface to be a stuffy diplomat, de Fayet was a sadistic man who viewed his slaves as little more than animals, referring to them as "beasts" during everyday conversation. In his final words to Adéwalé, he showed no remorse for the way he had treated his slaves, insisting that they were animals who, without guidance from their masters, would resort to violence, and believed that Adéwalé's actions had proven his point. However, this only served to further infuriate the Assassin, who proceeded to give de Fayet a slow and painful death.

Trivia

• Historically, de Fayet died in Petit-Goâve, Saint-Domingue, on 11 July 1737.

Gallery

• 
  De Fayet torturing a slave with a branding iron
• 
  De Fayet being chased by Adéwalé
• 
  De Fayet being struck by his own branding iron

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Freedom Cry (first appearance)
• Assassin's Creed: Rogue (mentioned in Database entry only)