In the Fall of 1785, du Pont entered the Collège Royal in Paris.
Two years later, he was accepted by the friend of his father and noted chemist Antoine Lavoisier as a student in the Régie des poudres, the government agency responsible for the manufacture of gunpowder.
It was from Lavoisier that he gained his expertise in nitrate extraction and manufacture.
He studied "advanced explosives production techniques" 
After a brief apprenticeship, he took a position at the government powder works in Essones but quit after Lavoisier left.
In 1791, du Pont began to help his father manage their small publishing house in Paris, where they published a republican newspaper in support of governmental reforms in France.
Despite being a soft-spoken chemist, he also had a strong sense of social order.
Du Pont was a member of the pro-Revolution national guard and supported the Jacobins.
However, on 20 August 1792, both du Pont and his father participated in protecting the escape of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette when the Tuileries Palace was stormed.
His father riled up fellow revolutionaries by refusing to go along with the guillotine execution of Louis XVI, and the two men's moderate political views proved to be a liability in revolutionary France.

His father was arrested in 1794, only avoiding execution because of the end of the Reign of Terror.
In September 1797, du Pont and his father spent a night in La Force prison while their home and presses were ransacked.
These events led his father to lose hope in the political situation in France, and so he began making plans to move their family to America and aspired to create a model community of French émigrés.
On 2 October 1799, the du Pont family sold their publishing house and set sail for the United States.
They reached Rhode Island on 1 January 1800 and began to settle in the home the eldest du Pont had secured in Bergen Point, New Jersey.

They soon set up an office in New York City to decide what their new line of business would be, but ironically mild-mannered and introverted Éleuthère Irénée was not included in much of these plans.
However, he would soon begin to realize the possibilities that his childhood apprenticeship with Lavoisier would allow him and his family in America.
In the Fall of 1785, du Pont entered the Collège Royal in Paris. Two years later, he was accepted by the friend of his father and noted chemist Antoine Lavoisier as a student in the Régie des poudres, the government agency responsible for the manufacture of gunpowder. It was from Lavoisier that he gained his expertise in nitrate extraction and manufacture. He studied "advanced explosives production techniques" 
After a brief apprenticeship, he took a position at the government powder works in Essones but quit after Lavoisier left. In 1791, du Pont began to help his father manage their small publishing house in Paris, where they published a republican newspaper in support of governmental reforms in France. Despite being a soft-spoken chemist, he also had a strong sense of social order. Du Pont was a member of the pro-Revolution national guard and supported the Jacobins. However, on 20 August 1792, both du Pont and his father participated in protecting the escape of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette when the Tuileries Palace was stormed. His father riled up fellow revolutionaries by refusing to go along with the guillotine execution of Louis XVI, and the two men's moderate political views proved to be a liability in revolutionary France.
His father was arrested in 1794, only avoiding execution because of the end of the Reign of Terror. In September 1797, du Pont and his father spent a night in La Force prison while their home and presses were ransacked. These events led his father to lose hope in the political situation in France, and so he began making plans to move their family to America and aspired to create a model community of French émigrés. On 2 October 1799, the du Pont family sold their publishing house and set sail for the United States. They reached Rhode Island on 1 January 1800 and began to settle in the home the eldest du Pont had secured in Bergen Point, New Jersey.
They soon set up an office in New York City to decide what their new line of business would be, but ironically mild-mannered and introverted Éleuthère Irénée was not included in much of these plans. However, he would soon begin to realize the possibilities that his childhood apprenticeship with Lavoisier would allow him and his family in America.
Éleuthère Irénée du Pont