Month: May 2021

As part of the research project entitled “Repairs”, a team from the International Research Centre on slavery and post-slavery of the CNRS (French national scientific research centre) has traced the compensation money awarded to and paid out in former French slave-owning colonies in the 19th century, information published in a database, the first of its kind.

After abolishing slavery for the second time on 27th April 1848, in 1849, France granted compensation to former slave owners under the colonial empire in Reunion, Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guyana, Senegal, Nosy Bé and Sainte-Marie in Madagascar. Through this controversial measure, The French State attempted to preserve its economic interests in the colonies where French ownership was in danger, due to the settlers threatening to abandon the territory. 126 million French francs were set-aside for this purpose, in the form of subsidies granted immediately (6 million francs) and annual payments of 6 million francs over a period of 20 years, the amount varying from colony to colony. These amounts represented a large proportion of public funds. At the time, the national income was approximately Fr.10 billion, so Fr. 126 million corresponded to 1.3% of the national income. Currently, the national income of France amounts to approximately €2,100 billion, so if the same percentage were to be applied, the subsidy would amount to €27 billion.

The research has made it possible to show that these subsidies were not just limited to the important landowners: over 30% of the beneficiaries were persons of colour, owners of a few slaves (in these societies, salaried work did not exist). In addition, certain legal deeds changed hands to make it possible for former owners to pay their debts: a person could thus become holder of such deeds as a creditor, but without ever having been a slave owner. The findings of research carried out over two years on the basis of tens of thousands of archived documents, this database will be evolving and collaborative, to be completed as research continues to be carried out all by the users who wish to enrich the biographical and genealogical data by submitting source documents.

Consult the database

The Departmental Council announces the launching of an atlas of slavery on Reunion, to mark the 20th anniversary of the law dated 21st May 2021, aimed at recognition of the slave trade and slavery as a crime against humanity and prefiguring the future Villèle museum.

 

Présentation

• At present there is no atlas devoted to slavery on Reunion. However, the atlas is an essential tool for understanding the way in which slavery had an impact on the territory, men and women and their memory, in different fields of the society.

Why an atlas?

• An atlas is a collection of maps making it possible to localise and carry out a spatial reading of historical facts. It provides an understanding of the evolution of the latter, chronologically and geographically.

Comprehensive information

• The atlas will indicate the physical and symbolic locations linked to slavery:
– Former estates
– Places of maroon settlements (escaped slaves)
– Places and objects of memory
– Material and immaterial heritage
– Toponyms or elements of slavery in the landscape
– Public structures of research and culture (archives, university, museums, resource centres etc.)
…

• The atlas will indicate all available identified information linked to each location.

A modern and accessible tool

• The atlas will be digital, freely open for online consultation, dynamic, intuitive and interactive.
• It will be added to as research and knowledge progress
• It may be published in the form of a physical atlas

A federating and collaborative tool

• Carrying out such a project is a complex process. It necessitates the scientific, cultural, technical and material collaboration of a large number of partners (the field of research, academic societies, associations etc.).
• It also requires the collaboration of the public.
• In all these fields, it also requires the collaboration of the French State, local government bodies, scientific and cultural institutions, foundations and private companies as sponsors.

Calendar

2021: Taking stock, drawing up of documentary corpus
2022: Mapping
2023: Putting on line / inauguration of initial content

Research work, a book, an exhibition, theatre plays, a film etc. The story of the slave Furcy, who was freed and then spent his life struggling to obtain the status of a man born free, continues to inspire our contemporaries.

 

In 2019, to close the commemorations of the 170th anniversary of the abolition of slavery, the Departmental Council of Reunion presented at the Villèle museum, the museum of the history of the estate and of slavery, an original exhibition entitled ‘The strange story of Furcy Madeleine 1786-1856’. The exhibition was granted the label of ‘Exhibition of national interest’.

A 52-minute film, entitled Furcy, le procès de la Liberté (Furcy, the trial for freedom), written and directed by Pierre Lane, came out in 2021. It was broadcast through the channel ‘Outre-mer 1ère’ on 13th May, in the context of the national day of commemoration of the slave trade, slavery and their abolition and to mark the 20th anniversary of the French law entitled ‘loi Taubira’.

A 27-year-long legal struggle

In 1817 on Bourbon island, the slave Furcy dared challenge his master Lory concerning his status of slave, claiming to have been born free of Madeleine, his Indian mother who should have been freed when she travelled to France several years previously.

For over a quarter of a century, from 1817 to 1843, Furcy struggled to have his freedom recognised. His long combat first of all led him to be sent to prison on Bourbon island, then to Mauritius island, initially as a slave then as a freed slave and finally took him to Paris, where his claims were eventually recognised by the French legal system.

How was all this possible? What sort of person was Furcy?

The documentary presents the itinerary of this man of exceptional qualities. The narrative is deployed on the basis of archival documents (letters, memoranda, minutes), as well as accounts by historians and animated comic strips.
The story of his extraordinary life in Reunion, Mauritius and Paris is pieced together little by little like a puzzle, with all its unexpected turns of event, its mysteries and also its ambiguities.

It is the story of a man who stood alone, at the heart of the turmoil around slavery, a system which crushed the lives of millions of persons. It is the story of a man standing firm with his convictions: he wanted justice to be done, the story of a man claiming his membership of the human race, his emancipation, his uniqueness as a human being. It is the story of a man named Furcy who, after so many trials and tribulations, took on a new name: Furcy Madeleine, an act of dignity refused him for so many years.

 

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FURCY, LE PROCÈS DE LA LIBERTÉ
Written and directed by Pierre Lane
Produced by Fabienne Servan Schreiber and Estelle Mauriac (Cinétévé)
In co-production with Gao Shan Pictures and France Télévisions
The film was available on France.tv replay until 12/06/2021

Read more

The historian Hubert Gerbeau, a pioneer in the field of research on slavery in Reunion, died on 3rd April 2021. The Departmental Council of Reunion pays tribute to him.

 

 

“Hubert Gerbeau, historian, an eminent specialist on the history of slavery on Bourbon island, has died. On a personal level and on behalf of all the elected members of the Departmental Council, I wish to pay tribute to his memory and communicate our heartfelt condolences to his family.

At the University of Reunion, where he contributed to the intellectual development of several generations of students, and even after leaving the University, during his entire teaching career and after retiring, Hubert Gerbeau worked unceasingly, carrying out research and publishing documents with the aim of widening the knowledge of slavery on our island.

There is no doubt that his pioneering, rigorous scientific work, reflected in his many publications and his thesis on slavery on Bourbon in the 19th and 20th centuries, presented in 2005, will remain a reference.

The Department Council had a number of rich and open discussions with Hubert Gerbeau. As a result, after being a member of the organising committee for the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in 1998, in 2018 he accepted the title of honorary member of the Scientific Committee for the future Villèle museum, Museum of the estate and of slavery.

The digital portal ‘History and memories of slavery in Reunion’, to which he contributed, now pays tribute to Hubert Gerbeau.”

Cyrille Melchior,
President of the Departmental Council of Reunion

 

 

 

Read the article by Hubert Gerbeau published on the website

The Illicit slave trade on Bourbon island in the 19th century

 

Bibliography:

Scientific works:

Martin Luther King / Hubert Gerbeau. – Paris : Éditions universitaires, 1968. – 166 p., 20 cm

Les esclaves noirs : pour une histoire du silence / Hubert Gerbeau. – Paris : A. Balland, impr. 1970. – 1 vol. (216 p.) ; 23 cm

Brèves réflexions sur le sort de la femme esclave à l’île de La Réunion au 19e siècle / Hubert Gerbeau. – Saint-Denis : [s.n.], 1973. – 1 vol. (19 p.) ; 30 cm

Des minorités mal connues : esclaves indiens et malais des Mascareignes au XIXème siècle / Hubert Gerbeau. – [Aix-en-Provence] : IHPOM, 1978. – 1 vol. (84 f.) ; 30 cm

La traite esclavagiste dans l’océan Indien : problèmes posés à l’historien, recherches à entreprendre / Hubert Gerbeau.
– [S.l.] : [s.n.], 1978. – P. 193-217 ; 30 cm

Presse et esclavage à l’île de La Réunion au temps de l’émancipation / Hubert Gerbeau ; [textes réunis par]Jean Antoine Gili et Ralph Schor . – Paris : publications de la Sorbonne, 1988. – P. 41-49 : couv. ill. en noir et en coul. ; 30 cm

Les esclaves noirs : pour une histoire du silence : 1848-1998, 150e anniversaire de l’abolition de l’esclavage, Île de la Réunion / Hubert Gerbeau. – [Saint-Denis] : Conseil général de la Réunion ; Saint-André : Océan éd., 1998. – 195 p. ; 22 cm. – (Collection 20 désanm)

De l’esclavage / Hubert Gerbeau, Issa Asgarally, Jean-François Reverzy. – Saint-Denis (La Réunion) : Grand Océan, 2005.
– 1 vol. (104 p.) ; 21 cm

L’esclavage et son ombre : l’île de Bourbon aux XIXe et XXe siècles / Hubert Gerbeau ; sous la direction de Gérard Chastagnaret. – Université de Provence 2005. – Thèse de doctorat d’État Histoire

Les esclaves noirs : pour une histoire du silence / Hubert Gerbeau. – Paris : les Indes savantes, impr. 2013, cop. 2013.
– 1 vol. (203 p.) : couv. ill. ; 24 cm

 

Literary works:

Swèdjana (le fou d’Afrique). – Paris : Flammarion, 1980. – 157 p.

Nostalgies de couleurs : suite de textes / sur des dessins de Raphaël Ségura ; préface de Gilbert Aubry. – Saint-André (Réunion) : Océan Editions, 1990. – 108 p.

Visions et visages : suite de textes accompagnant l’exposition de 40 tableaux de Jean-Jacques Martin organisée dans les locaux du Port Autonome de Marseille (2001).

Le Voyageur : conte. –  In La Corne de Brume, n° 2, 2003, p. 70-84.

Noc. –  Paris :  Editions Le Bretteur, 2004. – 228 p.

LIA. D’un paradis l’autre. –  Paris, Les Indes savantes,  2006. –  352 p. – (Collection du cannibale)

La Négresse de paradis. –  Paris : Les Indes savantes, 2011. –  216 p. – .  (Collection du cannibale)

Foutu foot. – Saint-Denis : Édilivre, DL 2015. – 1 vol. (107 p.) ; 21 cm

 

Publications on the Internet:
http://classiques.uqac.ca/contemporains/gerbeau_hubert/gerbeau_hubert.html

“L’Océan Indien n’est pas l’Atlantique. La traite illégale à Bourbon au XIXe siècle.” Un article publié dans Outre-Mers, revue de la société française d’Histoire d’Outre-mer, n° 336-337, décembre 2002, Paris, p. 79-108 (coordination du dossier thématique “Traites et esclavages: vieux problèmes, nouvelles perspectives ?” par Olivier Pétré-Grenouilleau, p. 1-282).

“Maladie et santé aux Mascareignes: une histoire aux prises avec l’idéologie”. Un article publié dans l’ouvrage sous la direction de Jean-Luc Bonniol, Gerry L’Étang, Jean Barnabé et Raphaël Confiant, Au visiteur lumineux. Des îles créoles aux sociétés plurielles. Mélanges offerts à Jean Benoist, pp. 557-574. Petit-Bourg, Guadeloupe: Ibis Rouge Éditions, GEREC-F/Presses universitaires créoles, 2000, 716 pp.

“La famille Mabit dans les Hauts de la Réunion. Une contribution au mythe insulaire”. Un article publié dans De la tradition à la post-modernité. Hommage à Jean Poirier, pp. 257-265. Textes réunis par André Carénini et Jean-Pierre Jardel. Paris: Les Presses universitaires de France, 1996, 1re édition, 487 pp.

“LES INDIENS DES MASCAREIGNES. Simples jalons pour l’histoire d’une réussite (XVIle-XXe siècle)”. Un article publié dans l’Annuaire des pays de l’Océan indien, XII, 1990-1991, pp. 15-45. Éditions du CNRS / Presses universitaires d’Aix-Marseilles, 1992.

“La liberté des enfants de Dieu. Quelques aspects des relations des esclaves et de l’Église à la Réunion”. Un article publié dans Problèmes religieux et minorités en Océan indien. Table ronde IHPOM, CHEAM, CERSOI. Sénanque, mai 1980, pp. 45-95. Institut d’histoire des pays d’outre-mer, Université de Provence. Études et documents, no 14, 1981.

“Des minorités mal connues: esclaves indiens et malais des Mascareignes au XIXe siècle”. Table ronde sur “Migrations, minorités et échanges en Océan Indien, XIXe-XXe siècle”, Sénanque, 1978, Études et Documents, Aix-en-Provence, IHPOM (Institut d’Histoire des Pays d’Outre-Mer), Université de Provence, n° 11, 1979, p. 160-242.