Barbé-Marbois, François, marquis de

Barbé-Marbois, François, marquis de (fräNswä` märkē` də bärbā`-märbwä`), 1745–1837, French statesman. He held diplomatic posts in Europe and, during the American Revolution, in the United States. After holding a governmental post in Saint-Domingue (Santo Domingo), he returned to France and was active in the French Revolution. Suspected of royalist sympathies, he was deported (1797) to French Guiana. He was released by Napoleon I, who made him director and then minister of the treasury. Barbé-Marbois negotiated the treaty by which Louisiana was ceded to the United States. Under the Bourbon restoration he was briefly (1815–16) minister of justice and keeper of the seals.

Bibliography

See E. W. Lyon, The Man Who Sold Louisiana (1942).