Bordeaux and slave trade
BORDEAUX,1st colonial harbour, 2nd slavery harbour
It is from the middle of the 17th century that the French
started to populate their colonies with African prisoners.
Authorised by Louis XIIIth in 1642, slave trade took
rapidly off, reaching its peak in the 18th century.
During the 18th century, French trade knew a
tremendous bounce thanks to colonial impulsion.
Between 1717 and 1789, exterior trade value is
multiplied by 10 and colonial trade by 17!
Bordeaux fulfils on its own 2/5th of national trade with
the West Indies and exports 3/4th of colonial products
like sugar, coffee, tobacco, cotton or spices towards big
harbours : Hamburg, Amsterdam, London or Rotterdam.
Behind these statistics is hidden slave trade reality…
About slave imports
Louis XIIIth
And yet, in 1571, when a ship steered by a
Norman captain lands in Bordeaux to sell his slave
cargo, he is sharply expelled, and his slaves are
let free under the Parliament’s order.
Montaigne’s influence, who dedicated his life to
the writing of ‘Essais’, is still alive and his ideas
find a wide echo among the middle class, very
sensitive to the humanist ideas of the
Renaissance.
Slave trade, practised by the Portuguese since the
1400‘s is not legal in France.
Montaigne, born in Bordeaux
But, from the middle of the 18th century to the 19th
century, Bordeaux becomes the 2nd slave trade harbour,
with La Rochelle, and afterwards Nantes. And slave
trade was even called the superior branch of trade
.Colonial economy was essentially based on this
“triangular trade” (France- Africa- the West Indies).
Bordeaux organised 500 expeditions embarking between
130,000 and 150,000 captives from Western coasts of
Africa towards Atlantic French isles like Saint Domingue
and the West Indies.
600 slaves could be packed in each ship! During the day,
only women and children were allowed to go out. From
time to time, they were bathed and ordered to dance, as
a manner to maintain them alive.
Wine trade, characteristic of this city, is completely
neglected compared to slave trade.
Slaves in a ship / 1827
Slave sellers on the Ivory Coast were not easily satisfied: they
expected more than shoddy goods and glass jewelleries. Their taste
for textiles, hardware, alcohol, weapons, gunpowder was stronger
and stronger.
They also wanted « cauris », those little white shellfishes which
were used as money.
Arriving in the West Indies, sexes management had to be very
precise. By importing too many women or girls, European sellers
could encourage Blacks’ reproduction in the colonies, and so
competing slave trade!
Slaves’ sale / middle of the19th century / south of the USA
Every slave ship was sent to Africa to load its slaves cargo (often war
prisoners captured by African leaders) and then it discharged its human
merchandise to the West Indies.
French slave harbours' activity
Bordeaux’s wharf
During the 7 year War (1755-1763), France was bound to
cede Louisiana to Spain, to abandon Senegal, Canada to
the British but it intended to keep possession of the West
Indies because they provided the realm’s supplying in
tropical products as the demand was increasing.
Facing British naval supremacy, Bordeaux’s harbour
developed a corsair activity. From 1763 to 1773,
Bordeaux’s fitter-outs transported 22,220 Africans!
And slave trade was explained by ideological
rationalizations: « it is doing Blacks a favour to submit
them to tyrants’ barbarity ». « Are they really human beings
? ».
Even the philosopher Montesquieu, well known for his
abolitionism, would have said that « almost all tropical
nations live in a violent state because of the dreadful heat,
so they must be converted into slaves! »
Montesquieu, born in
Bordeaux
Isaac PEREIRE (18061880)
Emile PEREIRE(18001875),
Both born in Bordeaux
Colonial system permitted a lot of dealers
to amass considerable fortunes. The most
famous examples are the Pereire brothers,
the creators of theTransatlantic General
Company.
At the end of the 18th century, they were
an influent group of pressure, a powerful
brake while antislavery movements were
growing.
After Saint-Domingue’s insurrection, the Convention abolishes
slavery in 1794.
It is restored by Napoleon en 1802, at the cost of a bloody
repression, and the slave trade can take up again.
Slave trade is condemned by Louis XVIIIth in 1814. Anyway the
« coolie trade » substitutes for that. French slave ships mean to
carry on their illegal business in Bordeaux, but also in Nantes. The
coolies, or volunteers, were Chinese or Indians for the most part and
generated huge profits.
Slave trade becomes clandestine, bit by bit, while abolitionism is
gaining ground. In 1833, London abolishes it. France, for its part, will
put an end to this institution — definitively this time — by the
decrees of the 27th of April 1848, thanks to the deputy Victor
Schoelcher.
Napoleon
Louis XVIIIth
André-Daniel Laffon de Ladebat
is well known for his speech
about « the necessity and
meanings of suppressing slavery
in the colonies ». He was
associated to the Blacks’ friends
society.
Victor Schoelcher (1804-1893), abolishes slavery
during the Second Republic in April 1848
Anecdote
The justifications for slave trade were
often founded on racist sterotypes and
religious events, like Cham’s malediction.
In fact, the Blacks were supposed to be
descended from Noe’s son, cursed by his
father: that’s why they were condemned to
servitude!
Placards for a slaves' sale in
British colonies, 1769
The quays
(1800’s)
Bordeaux harbour (1790)
Slavery in Brazil
Along these three centuries of
intensive slave trade (from 1550
to 1850) we estimate that 20 to
100 millions of Africans were
deported, and 65% to 80% of
them died during the trip to
America or from bad treatments.
The abolition of slavery in French colonies(27th of April 1848)
Painted by François Biard, National Museum of Versailles' castle
In Bordeaux, you can find typical grotesque masks (or
mascaron), last remnants of colonial time representing
black people’s faces, in Fernand-Philippart street and on
the quays’ façades.
In architecture, a mascaron ornament is a face, usually
human, sometimes frightening or chimerical whose
function was originally to frighten away evil spirits so that
they would not enter the building. The concept was
subsequently adapted to become a purely decorative
element.