[2] After the Bourbon Restoration, he returned to Haiti with his mother and sisters where he quickly entered in the service of Alexandre Pétion's government.

According to the sketchy biography his son wrote about him, Granville went to France as a teenager at the time when the French Revolution was moving toward a more conservative strike, but Napoleon was not yet emperor.

His son wrote, "It was in 1799 at the beginning of the deplorable division of the Governor General Toussaint Louverture and Rigaud, that by order of the Executive Board, he was sent to France with other young people for their education.

On February 20, 1806, after completing his studies at the National Institute des Colonies (former Collège de la Marche) and trying out medicine for a while, Granville enlisted in the Napoleonic army.

Janvier wrote that he was one of the survivors of the Battle of Leipzig and that he received the "La Croix pour sa belle conduite" (Cross for his gallant conduct).

Haitians leaders believed free blacks should migrate to Haiti instead of Liberia, where the American Colonization Society (ACS) promoted as the preeminent location for emigrants.

Along with fifty thousand pounds of coffee, Boyer provided Granville with a fund to pay in full the emigrants passage to Haiti.

[8] With the backing of the Haitian government, Granville and his companions, Prince Saunders and Loring D. Dewey, guaranteed the emigrants economic prosperity in Haiti.

Feeling uncomfortable surrounded by whites who frequently mistreated him, Granville often requested that Boyer relieves him of his duties in America and allow him to return to Haiti.

The Boston Commercial Gazette records the incident as such "Observing Mr. Granville at his elbow, the officer remarked, ‘sir are you not aware that it is contrary to custom for white men and colored people to eat at the same table?".

"This officer has conducted himself with the greatest circumspection, and has made every favorable impression on the minds of our citizens with respect to his character and talents."

"Mr. Walsh of the National Gazette said the following about of Granville, "We have had the pleasure of conversing with, and formed a very favorable opinion of his understanding and feelings.

"If this is a specimen of Haytien manners, it would not be amiss to send some of our young men to President Boyer that they may learn how to behave themselves le gentlemen and like Christians."

While on his tour of the U.S., American artist Philip Tilyard made a portrait of Jonathas Granville, which is now on exhibit at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

[15] At his death, Hérard Dumesle composed a poem in his honor, which helped making him a martyr of the liberal political current: "Dithyrambe élégiaque sur la mort de Jonathas Granville.

(English) Time that everything destroys, is respecting his tomb It will grow for thee the most beautiful Laurel If death, as they say, is a terrible mystery As the future unfolds, it will break through the Earth!