In 1794, he wrote the song, "La Liberté des Nègres", which celebrated the abolition of slavery by the French National Convention.
He was the son of Pierre-Joseph de Piis, chevalier de Saint-Louis and major to the Cap Français, and as such was intended for service in France's colonial army. However, due to his delicate health, he gave up the military and completed at the collège d'Harcourt the studies he had begun at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand.
Sources
Ferdinand Hoefer, Nouvelle biographie générale, t. 40, Paris, Firmin Didot, frères, 1862, p. 226-7.
Louis Gustave Vapereau, Dictionnaire universel des littératures, Paris, Hachette, 1876, p. 1600