the reminder of the global extent of the slave trade, and your candid opinioms. As noted below - not the only French example of amnesia about the past. It is important to appreciate that there is more to France than la vie en rose, and that its enviable and undeniable beauty hides some uncomfortable truths. I really appreciated this post.
Thank you so much for your feedback. Of course many countries were involved in the slave trade, and many French port cities. La Rochelle makes an effort to communicate about it through this museum, but discourse has changed so much since the early 80s that it really needs to be thought out again.
Ah, yes, France's dirty secret. Not only France's, of course. Many European countries were involved in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, even innocuous-seeming little Denmark. What we know and love as the US Virgin Islands were first the Danish Virgin Islands, after all. It's good that this museum exists in La Rochelle, but by your description it does seem to need some work.
I read that France was extremely motivated to imitate Spain and Portugal, the first countries to trade in slaves, and actually started selling them to Spanish colonies and Brazil before France even had its own colonies in that region. Of course it's good the museum exists but the overhaul would need to be pretty drastic. The "French Antilles" section only takes up about a quarter of the museum's space, and only 2 of its 5 sections, The Slave Trade and Abolitions of Slavery, really deal with slavery.
It's true that Spain and Portugal didn't handle most of the logistics themselves after the early days of the trade. One of the major economic prizes in the War of the Spanish Succession was the Asiento, the Spanish crown's lucrative licence to transport enslaved people. France would have liked to have it, but it lost the war. Britain got it instead.
Yes, which led to the Mutiny on the Bounty; and to the Mutiny of Dutch settlers against the brutal British Govenor of the New Walcheran Islands. (The expose was written by a friend of mine). So much of the history is hidden
I did not realize that. Of course I don't realize a lot of things about European history. I was quite into US History in high school and college, but never delved deeply into French history despite living here -- not to mention the rest of Europe! Visiting these new places and trying to impart a modicum of history, sometimes seriously and sometimes "fractured" as I like to put it, has been most motivating.
Great piece! One of my ancestors, a Marie Chaillon, was from La Rochelle. She came with a dowry of $4,000 (in whatever was the currency of the day) and her father was described as, ‘a wealthy man of commerce’. It never even occurred to me that was probably a euphemism for ‘slave trader’. She came from Rue de Roy, about which I can find nothing. Anyway, reading this piece connected some very disturbing and disappointing dots for me - it appears to be the first ancestor with ties to a very ugly practice.
Thank you for your comment. Yes, depending on the time period, it is likely that her father was involved, although from what I understood, there were a few shipping companies that were not. As for the street, a lot of street names have undergone change in La Rochelle for various reasons. Given the siege of the city ordered by Louis XIII, the street name might have been changed, or perhaps after the revolution?
Betty - thank you for your reply. Marie was born in 1615 - so before the revolution. I did find the Rue de Roy street on a map, but no historical buildings. Destruction during the revolution is definitely an option.
I really enjoy reading about your travels and insights.
Thanks for this most enlightening article on La Rochelle’s role in the triangular slave trade and how inadequately its Musée du Nouveau Monde addresses this most somber part of the city’s history. I perused the museum’s website, and was pretty much floored to see how it discusses this topic. Here is a paragraph that just amazed me:
“Au fil des acquisitions menées depuis sa création, il [le Musée du Nouveau Monde] s’est voulu autant le miroir d’une Amérique découverte et explorée par la vieille Europe que le reflet d’une ville dynamique et commerçante enrichie économiquement et culturellement par le nouveau continent.”
Really?!!?
An anecdote here: I directed for six consecutive years (2014-2019) the University of Pittsburgh Summer Study Abroad Program in Nantes, France’s first slave trade port. That city is also attending to its “travail de mémoire,” for sure, with a very moving Mémorial de l’Esclavage, for example. The Director of IES, the organization that managed all logistics for the University of Pittsburgh program that I was directing, told me that a few years before I first came to Nantes, a host family had been assigned to an African American student, and the “host father” had come to him in a panic, because he was the direct descendant of a prominent family that had been a pillar of Nantes’ triangular slave trade. He had no clue how to deal with his guilt at the idea of being the host of a descendant of African slaves.
And I certainly hope that Le Musée du Nouveau Monde will revisit very soon its entire way of dealing (or rather, dealing very poorly) with La Rochelle’s role in the triangular slave trade.
Elisabeth, I could have written 20 times as much about everything that was wrong with that museum. I had to sort through hundreds of photos and notes to get it down to something manageable.
Something I didn’t mention, because I would have had to go into super-detailed text interpretation, was the overlying impression that there was nonetheless something glorious about that whole era of La Rochelle’s history: clever tradespeople, inestimable riches, then, only parenthetically, slavery was A Very Bad Thing.
The placement of the plaque from Taubira’s speech floored me—I missed it totally going up.
And don’t even get me started on the whole Northern American colonialism/Native American section, which takes up 2/3 of the museum. I think it was even worse, because France doesn’t have to account to Native Americans. But I was overwhelmed by then — it’s on the upper floors — and I took a quicker look.
@Elisabeth Sauvage-Callaghan And sorry, I didn’t get to your comments about Nantes. I remember you spent time there. In the context of my research, I read about the memorial there and it seems to be much more appropriate than poor Clarisse standing in front of a Casino.
Thank you Betty for your research and for shining the light on this important part of la Rochelle 's History. Having lived in la Rochelle for 6 years I've always felt this sense of dirty history hidden in the city's elegant white facades.
I was also very disappointed by the ridiculous native American étalage in the new version of the 'Musée du Nouveau Monde' (a hypocrite French-snob-culture chosen name which says a lot by itself), and what you thought us about this sculpture and Christine Taubira's text is shocking.
It also tells a lot about today's La Rochelle's great families unease to deal with their dirty heritage.
I do hope bigger efforts will be made in the future, as it was made in Nantes with the memorial.
Hi Emily, I am absolutely thrilled to hear from somebody who lived in La Rochelle and who picked up on this feeling. I'm obviously not suggesting people living there now need to be feeling guilt or anything like that, but I do think official efforts such as the museum and the memorial need to be more sensitive to the issue. I get the impression that while there is a "travail de mémoire," there's still quite a bit of glorifying of that era. Do you know about this tour? I almost wrote about it, but felt it might be unfair since I wasn't going to take it. The text describing it is pretty shocking, however: https://epoktour.fr/visite/la-rochelle-faste-negociants/
Thank you for writing this and showing us what you found relating to the slave trade, a part of history which has been hidden and downplayed shamefully by so many countries.
The statue of the breastfeeding mother is wonderful and horrific. It should be on display in the centre of the museum, as you say.
Thank you for your comment, Lisa. I actually hadn't thought of the statue being in the museum, actually, as I believe it should remain part of a free public memorial space. However the space chosen is, as I explained, really out of the way and in a rather paltry setting: just a few benches and the simplest of informational plaques. I read that the location bears some symbolic value as it is across from the port where ships set sail, but La Rochelle is not lacking in that type of port space.
Outside of London, Lisa, very few museums in the U.K. are free. So many of them are housed in the stately homes that were built on the proceeds of slavery..... still making money for the, erm, "Noble" families who commissioned them..... London museums are heavily funded by the taxpayer, and usually have extremely profitable gift shops within, and plenty of donating friends....
You have a point about the stately homes, Maurice. Oh, the irony of paying to access them! But actually in comparison to most countries I think the UK does have quite a few free museums-over 200 nationwide. Though many are in London, I also visit a few in Liverpool and Newcastle when I'm in the UK.
I recall reading a pre-lockdown article on the inequality of museum funding, which stated that over 90% of the money went to London recipients. Many of the Free ones around the nation, that I have visited, include major city Galleries, gifted by "Philanthropic" Industrial Revolution Families - Same folk with the Big Houses. It's all a mechanism for grossly hiking the "value" of the art they own.... so much of which was stolen in the first instance, a metamorphosis of colonialism.... n'est-ce pas ?
It seems that this museum is very eurocentrist in the presentation of the history of slavery. The intra-africain and the oriental slave trade is almost not mentioned. This could be caused by the influence of the former minister Christiane Taubira who tried to force scientific research to follow her political agenda. But we saw the same issue in the museum of Nantes.
Thank you for your comment that takes this discussion to another dimension. Indeed, the whole name of the museum is Eurocentrist, isn't it. In reality, the museum only presents collections related to France's and, especially, La Rochelle's relationship with the Americas.
I'm intrigued by your mention of Taubira, forcing scientific research, her political agenda, and the museum in Nantes. Could you tell me more and connect the dots a little? I did not do any research into the history or political controversy involving the Taubira law.
Paul and I mused that cultures throughout history have enslaved one another, part of the ‘spoils’ of conquering.
I was also reminded of Ida Mae Gladney in Isabel Wilkerson’s “The Warmth of Other Suns”, who as a young sharecropper, was required to pick 100# of cotton per day - in the blazing sun while wearing a burlap bag as clothing. Ida Mae ultimately escaped and migrated to Chicago, a far better outcome.
A sickening feature of the human condition is the unchanging desire to deny, disguise and profit from the suffering of others.
As often as enslavement appears in our cultures,
it’s still hard to manage the deep sadness and shame we all bear for its perpetuation.
Interestingly, I was reading “The Warmth of Other Suns” when I went to La Rochelle and finished it shortly thereafter. I can’t say it inspired me to write the post, because exploring La Rochelle’s slavery history was a natural result of wanting to visit the museum that purports to “face up to it.” But it may have had something to do with it.
So now in the USA we have a gubernatorial candidate who has stated that he would be in favor of a return to slavery and would buy a few? And Trump calls him “Martin Luther King on steroids?” I hope you have followed that — it was definitely on my mind as I was editing the post.
The biggest worry is that this ridiculously extreme behavior isn’t being challenged assertively in the media and that, frankly, it isn’t being squashed as it arises by the candidate’s own party.
@Linda Naylor I've been following the sanewashing issue fairly closely, and am quite put off by the New York Times right now. I believe what Jeff Tiedrich and certainly others say: the media has a vested interest in this being a close race with all of the newsworthy fallout.
Agree, totally, Betty. I cancelled my 13-year NYT subscription in July. I still feel wounded that I needed to withdraw my support to show my extreme disapproval of how their editors write click-bait headlines - AND both-side the candidates. Many, many others are called to do the same thing.
I’ve begun subscribing to The Guardian and the Atlantic. Am delighted to support worthy journalism. I hope the Times can one day earn the readership of those of willing to pay for great journalism.
Numerous times, Betty, using every avenue - including social media - I could. Replies to opinion pieces, email to editors, etc. Sulzberger’s recent arrogant OpEd in the Post in defense of why they do not overtly defend our democracy confirmed my decision.
Like you, my daily routine included the Times and, frankly, I miss it.
Whilst the Guardian does indeed publish many worthy articles, Linda, may I suggest that you take a look at the history of it's ownership and it's less than honest claims on how it is funded......
Thank you so much for this important article. It has made me very interested in reading more about France's role in the slave trade. If you or anyone has recommendations for books (in English), I would welcome ideas.
I finally had a chance to read this post (I traveled to France on Sunday/Monday with my 87-year-old dad!) and woof. In all my time in LR, I never visited the Musée du Nouveau Monde, and of course, the statue did not exist when I was there. Why didn’t they place it on the Vieux Port, hmmm? (That’s a rhetorical question, LOL.)
When I first moved there in 1994, I went on a tour with someone from the Office de Tourisme, and the only thing I remember from that was that the stones on sidewalk of the Rue Sur Les Murs came from the St. Lawrence River, thanks to the Triangular Trade. If there was mention of slavery, it was matter-of-fact and not described as the horror it was.
Regarding the placement of Christine Taubira’s quote, I’m utterly unsurprised. IIRC, she faced so much racism when she was in the government…well, I’m sure she’s faced it all the time, but I remember some very public disdain at the time.
Thanks for writing this post. I hope lots of folks read it. We’re all complicit, even though we might not think we are.
Thanks for your feedback Alison -- it's really interesting to hear from someone who has lived in LR. To use language I avoided in the post, the location of the statue definitely pissed me off, plus it's in kind of a shitty space, with just a few benches around and pretty minimalist information. I thought the whole area around the Aquarium/Maritime museum would have been a perfect place to set up this memorial, with some architectural additions to make it more than a statue.
I hadn’t really thought about the placement of Taubira’s statement being racist in itself…could be. It surely shows a lack of desire to highlight the text in a way it could actually be seen by visitors.
I also ran into this visit and wonder how such a thing can even be taking place…
This is the second time in two weeks that I have read of Frances involvement in slave trade and coincidentally both have coincided with projects the students have been working on, I wish I could add to your information Betty from facts I have garnered from my students but it seems your research is far more thorough! Hmmm, I am obviously doing something wrong!!
This is an informative and very well written reminder of atrocities that none of us want to know about but should - I will show and translate for class next week - with your permission 🙏🏼x
Of course, Susie, you can use anything you want, but the historical background that I give is quite succinct and very oriented to La Rochelle. Did you catch the link I made to the online exhibit by the Archives Départementales? I thought it was quite a good overview of the subject without being too dense. Here it is so you don't have to dig through my post for it: https://archives.charente-maritime.fr/memoires-traite-lesclavage-et-leurs-abolitions
What is the exact project you are doing with your students?
Thanks so much Betty, the project, actually now over I have discovered this morning was titled 'les conquêtes des libertés' they were given these directives...
1.Comprendre que le contexte actuel nous impose de nous mobiliser pour les libertés et la liberté, acquises de longue lutte.
2.Les grandes figures emblématiques de la lutte contre l’esclavage et le racisme
3.Travail de recherche à croiser pour vérifier son exactitude
5.Réaliser un article de presse sur l’une de figures emblématiques de la lutte contre l’esclavage et le racisme.
The project included famous people worldwide, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks etc..; but one group were assigned Victor Schœlcher.
Sadly, because I am not present in all the classes, I have missed all of their expo's and as of this morning the project has been terminated. I always miss the best lessons!
I will direct them to your info though and the archives (thank you) because when I spoke to the prof, she will apparently continue the subject later in the year.
This was set for the quatrième classes, the history/geography professor is fabulous, she gives plenty of time for these projects, even asking the class how long they need to produce them… I’m in awe of her Betty.
It’s great to get some good news about education in France. But I’m not that surprised — my daughters loved collège. The teachers seemed to have more freedom since they weren’t constrained by the Bac, and to be more into “teaching” than pure subject matter.
I hope and believe, slowly but surely we will see more students actually enjoying the subjects they are obliged to take Betty, although I still have reservations on many points. And I’ll stop there for fear of saying things I shouldn’t!
Hi Betty, thankyou or this important opening up of the "Doctored" history of slavery. I know almost nothing about France's involvement.... I was brought up to honour William Wilberforce, the "Emancipator" who is widely credited with the freeing of the slaves. Yet his campaigning in Britain was his ticket to becoming an influential Member of the British Parliament, for the city of Kingstown-upon-Hull. He was the son of a local wealthy family who owned slaves. His campaigning led to the financial reimbursement of the British Slave owners, rather than the freedoms promised. His rather beautiful home in Hull is a museum to his memory. Prior to a Major makeover about 20 years ago, it was more of a memory of the atrocities inflicted. The city has always been in denial as to it's role - a major part of which was to convert ships to slave carriers. This involved adding internal decks of half height - doubling the number of transportees, laid down thereby easier to control. On such vessel was the coal carrier, the Bethia, purchased by the British Navy to be thus converted - for the transport of breadfruit plants from Tahiti to the Caribbean Plantations. The slaves there would be thereby be able to grow their own food, relieving the Slave "owners" of the cost of nutrition...... History does not speak of the sailors disenchantement here, giving other reasons for the Famous Mutiny...... The Bethia was renamed for the voyage as THE BOUNTY......
Thank you for the restack and all of that interesting information about another museum that may have been somewhat along the same lines. There is definitely a lot to learn on this issue. In the States, until secondary school we were often taught that the Civil War was fought “to free the slaves” and that The Emancipation Proclamation kind of took care of everything. Fortunately, once in high school I had a great US history teacher who was able to demonstrate all of the economic issues that were actually at the heart of the war.
Yes, that the impoverished northern states wanted to tax the south, hence the confederacy - incidentally the films I saw as a young boy mostly praised the rebels. Now there’s another bit of political spin - long after the conflict, the connections between European orchestration of slavery, & the southern plantation owners remained in place.
There is also the interesting tale of the ties between American Civil War, the English Suffragette Movement and the Yorkshire Mill Workers Boycott.
I am not yet clear on the detail, but roughly.... Mill workers in & around Sheffield bravely endured much hardship when they withdrew their labour to support abolition. Most of the subordinate classes had no vote. but but thy were prepared to boycott, even to die for democracy. Many of their employers were old men with young "forced" wives, who inherited financial power when their husbands died. Disgusted that the money came from the exploitation of U.S. slavery and English workers (who had been driven off the land) - They used their inheritances to support non denominational chapels to feed and educate the poor, and to campaign for votes for women. English society had forbidden impoverished "gentlewomen" to work, or own property. They were thus "forced" to marry the Exploiters. Money had always controlled parliament.....
Thank you so much for this important article. It has made me very interested in reading more about France's role in the slave trade. If you or anyone has recommendations for books (in English), I would welcome ideas.
Thank you for the information,
the reminder of the global extent of the slave trade, and your candid opinioms. As noted below - not the only French example of amnesia about the past. It is important to appreciate that there is more to France than la vie en rose, and that its enviable and undeniable beauty hides some uncomfortable truths. I really appreciated this post.
Thank you so much for your feedback. Of course many countries were involved in the slave trade, and many French port cities. La Rochelle makes an effort to communicate about it through this museum, but discourse has changed so much since the early 80s that it really needs to be thought out again.
Ah, yes, France's dirty secret. Not only France's, of course. Many European countries were involved in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, even innocuous-seeming little Denmark. What we know and love as the US Virgin Islands were first the Danish Virgin Islands, after all. It's good that this museum exists in La Rochelle, but by your description it does seem to need some work.
I read that France was extremely motivated to imitate Spain and Portugal, the first countries to trade in slaves, and actually started selling them to Spanish colonies and Brazil before France even had its own colonies in that region. Of course it's good the museum exists but the overhaul would need to be pretty drastic. The "French Antilles" section only takes up about a quarter of the museum's space, and only 2 of its 5 sections, The Slave Trade and Abolitions of Slavery, really deal with slavery.
And I was unaware of Danish involvement...
It's true that Spain and Portugal didn't handle most of the logistics themselves after the early days of the trade. One of the major economic prizes in the War of the Spanish Succession was the Asiento, the Spanish crown's lucrative licence to transport enslaved people. France would have liked to have it, but it lost the war. Britain got it instead.
Yes, which led to the Mutiny on the Bounty; and to the Mutiny of Dutch settlers against the brutal British Govenor of the New Walcheran Islands. (The expose was written by a friend of mine). So much of the history is hidden
I did not realize that. Of course I don't realize a lot of things about European history. I was quite into US History in high school and college, but never delved deeply into French history despite living here -- not to mention the rest of Europe! Visiting these new places and trying to impart a modicum of history, sometimes seriously and sometimes "fractured" as I like to put it, has been most motivating.
I agree. I like traveling to learn. For me, the Yucatan peninsula and Mayan history are next up.
Descendants of the slaves of the Dutch Antilles were neighbours of mine.....
My half-sister's Mom was Windrush.
I went to William Wilberforce School, full of bullies !
Thank you for this informative article. Having spent some time in Haiti, I’ve seen the “other” side…
Great piece! One of my ancestors, a Marie Chaillon, was from La Rochelle. She came with a dowry of $4,000 (in whatever was the currency of the day) and her father was described as, ‘a wealthy man of commerce’. It never even occurred to me that was probably a euphemism for ‘slave trader’. She came from Rue de Roy, about which I can find nothing. Anyway, reading this piece connected some very disturbing and disappointing dots for me - it appears to be the first ancestor with ties to a very ugly practice.
Thank you for your comment. Yes, depending on the time period, it is likely that her father was involved, although from what I understood, there were a few shipping companies that were not. As for the street, a lot of street names have undergone change in La Rochelle for various reasons. Given the siege of the city ordered by Louis XIII, the street name might have been changed, or perhaps after the revolution?
Betty - thank you for your reply. Marie was born in 1615 - so before the revolution. I did find the Rue de Roy street on a map, but no historical buildings. Destruction during the revolution is definitely an option.
I really enjoy reading about your travels and insights.
Oh, thank you -- I love hearing from my subscribers/readers. What's your experience with France?
Thanks for this most enlightening article on La Rochelle’s role in the triangular slave trade and how inadequately its Musée du Nouveau Monde addresses this most somber part of the city’s history. I perused the museum’s website, and was pretty much floored to see how it discusses this topic. Here is a paragraph that just amazed me:
“Au fil des acquisitions menées depuis sa création, il [le Musée du Nouveau Monde] s’est voulu autant le miroir d’une Amérique découverte et explorée par la vieille Europe que le reflet d’une ville dynamique et commerçante enrichie économiquement et culturellement par le nouveau continent.”
Really?!!?
An anecdote here: I directed for six consecutive years (2014-2019) the University of Pittsburgh Summer Study Abroad Program in Nantes, France’s first slave trade port. That city is also attending to its “travail de mémoire,” for sure, with a very moving Mémorial de l’Esclavage, for example. The Director of IES, the organization that managed all logistics for the University of Pittsburgh program that I was directing, told me that a few years before I first came to Nantes, a host family had been assigned to an African American student, and the “host father” had come to him in a panic, because he was the direct descendant of a prominent family that had been a pillar of Nantes’ triangular slave trade. He had no clue how to deal with his guilt at the idea of being the host of a descendant of African slaves.
And I certainly hope that Le Musée du Nouveau Monde will revisit very soon its entire way of dealing (or rather, dealing very poorly) with La Rochelle’s role in the triangular slave trade.
Elisabeth, I could have written 20 times as much about everything that was wrong with that museum. I had to sort through hundreds of photos and notes to get it down to something manageable.
Something I didn’t mention, because I would have had to go into super-detailed text interpretation, was the overlying impression that there was nonetheless something glorious about that whole era of La Rochelle’s history: clever tradespeople, inestimable riches, then, only parenthetically, slavery was A Very Bad Thing.
The placement of the plaque from Taubira’s speech floored me—I missed it totally going up.
And don’t even get me started on the whole Northern American colonialism/Native American section, which takes up 2/3 of the museum. I think it was even worse, because France doesn’t have to account to Native Americans. But I was overwhelmed by then — it’s on the upper floors — and I took a quicker look.
@Elisabeth Sauvage-Callaghan And sorry, I didn’t get to your comments about Nantes. I remember you spent time there. In the context of my research, I read about the memorial there and it seems to be much more appropriate than poor Clarisse standing in front of a Casino.
Thank you Betty for your research and for shining the light on this important part of la Rochelle 's History. Having lived in la Rochelle for 6 years I've always felt this sense of dirty history hidden in the city's elegant white facades.
I was also very disappointed by the ridiculous native American étalage in the new version of the 'Musée du Nouveau Monde' (a hypocrite French-snob-culture chosen name which says a lot by itself), and what you thought us about this sculpture and Christine Taubira's text is shocking.
It also tells a lot about today's La Rochelle's great families unease to deal with their dirty heritage.
I do hope bigger efforts will be made in the future, as it was made in Nantes with the memorial.
Hi Emily, I am absolutely thrilled to hear from somebody who lived in La Rochelle and who picked up on this feeling. I'm obviously not suggesting people living there now need to be feeling guilt or anything like that, but I do think official efforts such as the museum and the memorial need to be more sensitive to the issue. I get the impression that while there is a "travail de mémoire," there's still quite a bit of glorifying of that era. Do you know about this tour? I almost wrote about it, but felt it might be unfair since I wasn't going to take it. The text describing it is pretty shocking, however: https://epoktour.fr/visite/la-rochelle-faste-negociants/
Thank you for writing this and showing us what you found relating to the slave trade, a part of history which has been hidden and downplayed shamefully by so many countries.
The statue of the breastfeeding mother is wonderful and horrific. It should be on display in the centre of the museum, as you say.
Thank you for your comment, Lisa. I actually hadn't thought of the statue being in the museum, actually, as I believe it should remain part of a free public memorial space. However the space chosen is, as I explained, really out of the way and in a rather paltry setting: just a few benches and the simplest of informational plaques. I read that the location bears some symbolic value as it is across from the port where ships set sail, but La Rochelle is not lacking in that type of port space.
Of course, I forget museums are not free in France, or anywhere in Europe, except the UK? It should be in a more prominent public space then.
Outside of London, Lisa, very few museums in the U.K. are free. So many of them are housed in the stately homes that were built on the proceeds of slavery..... still making money for the, erm, "Noble" families who commissioned them..... London museums are heavily funded by the taxpayer, and usually have extremely profitable gift shops within, and plenty of donating friends....
You have a point about the stately homes, Maurice. Oh, the irony of paying to access them! But actually in comparison to most countries I think the UK does have quite a few free museums-over 200 nationwide. Though many are in London, I also visit a few in Liverpool and Newcastle when I'm in the UK.
I recall reading a pre-lockdown article on the inequality of museum funding, which stated that over 90% of the money went to London recipients. Many of the Free ones around the nation, that I have visited, include major city Galleries, gifted by "Philanthropic" Industrial Revolution Families - Same folk with the Big Houses. It's all a mechanism for grossly hiking the "value" of the art they own.... so much of which was stolen in the first instance, a metamorphosis of colonialism.... n'est-ce pas ?
It seems that this museum is very eurocentrist in the presentation of the history of slavery. The intra-africain and the oriental slave trade is almost not mentioned. This could be caused by the influence of the former minister Christiane Taubira who tried to force scientific research to follow her political agenda. But we saw the same issue in the museum of Nantes.
Thank you for your comment that takes this discussion to another dimension. Indeed, the whole name of the museum is Eurocentrist, isn't it. In reality, the museum only presents collections related to France's and, especially, La Rochelle's relationship with the Americas.
I'm intrigued by your mention of Taubira, forcing scientific research, her political agenda, and the museum in Nantes. Could you tell me more and connect the dots a little? I did not do any research into the history or political controversy involving the Taubira law.
Paul and I mused that cultures throughout history have enslaved one another, part of the ‘spoils’ of conquering.
I was also reminded of Ida Mae Gladney in Isabel Wilkerson’s “The Warmth of Other Suns”, who as a young sharecropper, was required to pick 100# of cotton per day - in the blazing sun while wearing a burlap bag as clothing. Ida Mae ultimately escaped and migrated to Chicago, a far better outcome.
A sickening feature of the human condition is the unchanging desire to deny, disguise and profit from the suffering of others.
As often as enslavement appears in our cultures,
it’s still hard to manage the deep sadness and shame we all bear for its perpetuation.
Thank you, Betty.
As in Gaza & Ukraine now.....
Totally, Maurice.
And thank you for your comment.
Interestingly, I was reading “The Warmth of Other Suns” when I went to La Rochelle and finished it shortly thereafter. I can’t say it inspired me to write the post, because exploring La Rochelle’s slavery history was a natural result of wanting to visit the museum that purports to “face up to it.” But it may have had something to do with it.
So now in the USA we have a gubernatorial candidate who has stated that he would be in favor of a return to slavery and would buy a few? And Trump calls him “Martin Luther King on steroids?” I hope you have followed that — it was definitely on my mind as I was editing the post.
Yes. We follow the horror of it every day.
The biggest worry is that this ridiculously extreme behavior isn’t being challenged assertively in the media and that, frankly, it isn’t being squashed as it arises by the candidate’s own party.
@Linda Naylor I've been following the sanewashing issue fairly closely, and am quite put off by the New York Times right now. I believe what Jeff Tiedrich and certainly others say: the media has a vested interest in this being a close race with all of the newsworthy fallout.
Agree, totally, Betty. I cancelled my 13-year NYT subscription in July. I still feel wounded that I needed to withdraw my support to show my extreme disapproval of how their editors write click-bait headlines - AND both-side the candidates. Many, many others are called to do the same thing.
I’ve begun subscribing to The Guardian and the Atlantic. Am delighted to support worthy journalism. I hope the Times can one day earn the readership of those of willing to pay for great journalism.
I've been tempted, but there are so many great non-political features that have become part of my routine. I may mull it over. Did you write to them?
Numerous times, Betty, using every avenue - including social media - I could. Replies to opinion pieces, email to editors, etc. Sulzberger’s recent arrogant OpEd in the Post in defense of why they do not overtly defend our democracy confirmed my decision.
Like you, my daily routine included the Times and, frankly, I miss it.
Whilst the Guardian does indeed publish many worthy articles, Linda, may I suggest that you take a look at the history of it's ownership and it's less than honest claims on how it is funded......
Thank you, Maurice. I will.
Thank you so much for this important article. It has made me very interested in reading more about France's role in the slave trade. If you or anyone has recommendations for books (in English), I would welcome ideas.
Thank you for your comment! I'm afraid I don't have any recommendations, but I agree it would be a good subject to read up on.
I finally had a chance to read this post (I traveled to France on Sunday/Monday with my 87-year-old dad!) and woof. In all my time in LR, I never visited the Musée du Nouveau Monde, and of course, the statue did not exist when I was there. Why didn’t they place it on the Vieux Port, hmmm? (That’s a rhetorical question, LOL.)
When I first moved there in 1994, I went on a tour with someone from the Office de Tourisme, and the only thing I remember from that was that the stones on sidewalk of the Rue Sur Les Murs came from the St. Lawrence River, thanks to the Triangular Trade. If there was mention of slavery, it was matter-of-fact and not described as the horror it was.
Regarding the placement of Christine Taubira’s quote, I’m utterly unsurprised. IIRC, she faced so much racism when she was in the government…well, I’m sure she’s faced it all the time, but I remember some very public disdain at the time.
Thanks for writing this post. I hope lots of folks read it. We’re all complicit, even though we might not think we are.
Thanks for your feedback Alison -- it's really interesting to hear from someone who has lived in LR. To use language I avoided in the post, the location of the statue definitely pissed me off, plus it's in kind of a shitty space, with just a few benches around and pretty minimalist information. I thought the whole area around the Aquarium/Maritime museum would have been a perfect place to set up this memorial, with some architectural additions to make it more than a statue.
I hadn’t really thought about the placement of Taubira’s statement being racist in itself…could be. It surely shows a lack of desire to highlight the text in a way it could actually be seen by visitors.
I also ran into this visit and wonder how such a thing can even be taking place…
https://epoktour.fr/visite/la-rochelle-faste-negociants/#:~:text=Visiter%20La%20Rochelle%20et%20ses%20cours%20d'h%C3%B4tels%20particuliers%20en%20petit
And yes, the post has been getting good circulation. Feel free to share it with anyone from LR who might be interested.
This is the second time in two weeks that I have read of Frances involvement in slave trade and coincidentally both have coincided with projects the students have been working on, I wish I could add to your information Betty from facts I have garnered from my students but it seems your research is far more thorough! Hmmm, I am obviously doing something wrong!!
This is an informative and very well written reminder of atrocities that none of us want to know about but should - I will show and translate for class next week - with your permission 🙏🏼x
Of course, Susie, you can use anything you want, but the historical background that I give is quite succinct and very oriented to La Rochelle. Did you catch the link I made to the online exhibit by the Archives Départementales? I thought it was quite a good overview of the subject without being too dense. Here it is so you don't have to dig through my post for it: https://archives.charente-maritime.fr/memoires-traite-lesclavage-et-leurs-abolitions
What is the exact project you are doing with your students?
Thanks so much Betty, the project, actually now over I have discovered this morning was titled 'les conquêtes des libertés' they were given these directives...
1.Comprendre que le contexte actuel nous impose de nous mobiliser pour les libertés et la liberté, acquises de longue lutte.
2.Les grandes figures emblématiques de la lutte contre l’esclavage et le racisme
3.Travail de recherche à croiser pour vérifier son exactitude
4.Prélever des informations pour les réinvestir
5.Réaliser un article de presse sur l’une de figures emblématiques de la lutte contre l’esclavage et le racisme.
The project included famous people worldwide, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks etc..; but one group were assigned Victor Schœlcher.
Sadly, because I am not present in all the classes, I have missed all of their expo's and as of this morning the project has been terminated. I always miss the best lessons!
I will direct them to your info though and the archives (thank you) because when I spoke to the prof, she will apparently continue the subject later in the year.
What grade level is this? It sounds like some pretty hefty work, and very well-advised too.
This was set for the quatrième classes, the history/geography professor is fabulous, she gives plenty of time for these projects, even asking the class how long they need to produce them… I’m in awe of her Betty.
It’s great to get some good news about education in France. But I’m not that surprised — my daughters loved collège. The teachers seemed to have more freedom since they weren’t constrained by the Bac, and to be more into “teaching” than pure subject matter.
I hope and believe, slowly but surely we will see more students actually enjoying the subjects they are obliged to take Betty, although I still have reservations on many points. And I’ll stop there for fear of saying things I shouldn’t!
Hi Betty, thankyou or this important opening up of the "Doctored" history of slavery. I know almost nothing about France's involvement.... I was brought up to honour William Wilberforce, the "Emancipator" who is widely credited with the freeing of the slaves. Yet his campaigning in Britain was his ticket to becoming an influential Member of the British Parliament, for the city of Kingstown-upon-Hull. He was the son of a local wealthy family who owned slaves. His campaigning led to the financial reimbursement of the British Slave owners, rather than the freedoms promised. His rather beautiful home in Hull is a museum to his memory. Prior to a Major makeover about 20 years ago, it was more of a memory of the atrocities inflicted. The city has always been in denial as to it's role - a major part of which was to convert ships to slave carriers. This involved adding internal decks of half height - doubling the number of transportees, laid down thereby easier to control. On such vessel was the coal carrier, the Bethia, purchased by the British Navy to be thus converted - for the transport of breadfruit plants from Tahiti to the Caribbean Plantations. The slaves there would be thereby be able to grow their own food, relieving the Slave "owners" of the cost of nutrition...... History does not speak of the sailors disenchantement here, giving other reasons for the Famous Mutiny...... The Bethia was renamed for the voyage as THE BOUNTY......
Thank you for the restack and all of that interesting information about another museum that may have been somewhat along the same lines. There is definitely a lot to learn on this issue. In the States, until secondary school we were often taught that the Civil War was fought “to free the slaves” and that The Emancipation Proclamation kind of took care of everything. Fortunately, once in high school I had a great US history teacher who was able to demonstrate all of the economic issues that were actually at the heart of the war.
Yes, that the impoverished northern states wanted to tax the south, hence the confederacy - incidentally the films I saw as a young boy mostly praised the rebels. Now there’s another bit of political spin - long after the conflict, the connections between European orchestration of slavery, & the southern plantation owners remained in place.
There is also the interesting tale of the ties between American Civil War, the English Suffragette Movement and the Yorkshire Mill Workers Boycott.
I don't know that tale...
I am not yet clear on the detail, but roughly.... Mill workers in & around Sheffield bravely endured much hardship when they withdrew their labour to support abolition. Most of the subordinate classes had no vote. but but thy were prepared to boycott, even to die for democracy. Many of their employers were old men with young "forced" wives, who inherited financial power when their husbands died. Disgusted that the money came from the exploitation of U.S. slavery and English workers (who had been driven off the land) - They used their inheritances to support non denominational chapels to feed and educate the poor, and to campaign for votes for women. English society had forbidden impoverished "gentlewomen" to work, or own property. They were thus "forced" to marry the Exploiters. Money had always controlled parliament.....
Thank you so much for this important article. It has made me very interested in reading more about France's role in the slave trade. If you or anyone has recommendations for books (in English), I would welcome ideas.