{"id":1926,"date":"2019-12-17T10:29:28","date_gmt":"2019-12-17T09:29:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.portail-esclavage-reunion.fr\/?post_type=documentaire&p=1926"},"modified":"2025-10-15T16:45:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T12:45:06","slug":"the-origin-of-the-salves-on-bourbon-island","status":"publish","type":"documentaire","link":"https:\/\/www.portail-esclavage-reunion.fr\/en\/documentaires\/the-slave-trade\/the-origin-of-the-slaves-on-bourbon-island\/the-origin-of-the-salves-on-bourbon-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Where did the slaves on Bourbon island come from ?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The slave trade, today considered as an insult to civilisation and qualified as being a \u2018crime against humanity\u2019 by many States <\/span> , already deemed to be shocking by many educated people during the modern period <\/span> , was a child of its time; the trade, which was even practised in the name of the French king and was blessed by the Church <\/span> , was, in the 18th-century on Bourbon island and elsewhere, a driver of the economy <\/span>.<\/h2>\n

Whereas in Europe the slave trade had been taking place in the direction of America for over one and a half centuries <\/span>, it started to develop on Bourbon island a short time after the start of settlement <\/span>. So great was the need for an abundant workforce that <\/span> slaves were brought in from many different countries. In addition to the trade carried out as a secondary activity along the maritime route to India, a regional trade soon became essential, with Madagascar and the east coast of Africa becoming the sources of the immense majority of the slaves brought to Bourbon island in the late 18th century.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
L\u2019Aurore, slave ship from 1784. 1998.
De Vill\u00e8le historical museum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Along the route to India<\/h3>\n

From West Africa<\/h4>\n
\"\"<\/a>
The slave trade to Bourbon island from the west coast of Africa in the 18th century.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From West Africa, a few individuals were embarked unofficially <\/span> as from 1702, on board a number of occasional ships sailing through the region, and then exchanged <\/span> to be sold on Bourbon island; the number of slaves taken in this manner was actually very small <\/span>.
\nWhile finding the slaves to be \u2018excessively expensive\u2019, the French East India Company had persons brought in from west Africa: 200 slaves from Juda <\/span> in 1729, 76 slaves, then 188 from Gor\u00e9e <\/span> in 1730 and 1731.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Slave trader from Gor\u00e9e. Labrousse. 1796.
De Vill\u00e8le historical museum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Made illegal in 1731, the trade was once more authorised in 1737 by Mah\u00e9 de La Bourdonnais <\/span>\u00a0and again organised to a certain extent from 1739 to 1744.
\nDespite the large number of requests made by the administrators of the island, regular supplies of slaves ceased: the last captives from west Africa arrived in 1767.<\/p>\n

From India<\/h4>\n
\"\"<\/a>
The slave trade to Bourbon island from India in the 17th and 18th centuries.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As from the end of the 17th century, slaves were also brought in from India on ships sailing back to mainland France <\/span>, a practice that became more common from 1728. In 1729, Pierre-Beno\u00eet Dumas <\/span> sailed to Pondicherry <\/span>, where he witnessed the recruitment of servile workers. The slave trade from India ceased for a time from 1731 to 1734, then picked up again under the governor Mah\u00e9 de La Bourdonnais, with hundreds of slaves arriving on Bourbon island from Pondicherry. After 1767, slave traders <\/span> on Bourbon had contacts in Pondicherry and Chandernagor <\/span>, and slave ships sailed to Goa from the island.<\/p>\n

However, the wars between France and Britain <\/span> almost put an end to the trade: at the end of the 18th century, it was only practised occasionally. The memory of the commerce, however, served as a reference for the system of indentured workers <\/span> in the mid 19th century.<\/p>\n

From Madagascar<\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/a>
The slave trade to Bourbon island from Madagascar in the 18th century.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The conditions of the slave trade from Madagascar<\/h4>\n

Madagascar very early on became a source of the slave trade: as from the 10th century, and perhaps even earlier, Muslim traders would use the island as a source of slaves; the Portuguese followed in the 16th century and then the Dutch and the British in the 17th century. Between 1685 and 1726, pirates who settled in the north of Madagascar occasionally brought slaves to Bourbon.
\nWishing to develop the island, the French East India Company decided to take control of the trade in 1717: considered to be French, Madagascar was the source of slaves closest to Bourbon island.
\nWith the troubles linked to the French Revolution, commercial regulations were neglected, to the benefit of political legislation. The trade was restricted from 1789 to 1794, prohibited from 1794 to 1802, to be permitted once more. The slave trade ceased in Madagascar through British action from 1810 to 1811.<\/p>\n

Three successive centres of slave trade<\/h4>\n

Writing a report to the directors of the French East India Company in 1681, former commander R\u00e9gnault <\/span> recommended going to \u2018trade\u2019 Madagascans in parts of the island other than the south.<\/p>\n

In the 18th century, the northern stretch of the east coast of Madagascar became a true preserve for slaves to be brought over to the Mascareignes. Benefiting from excellent moorings, it offered abundant human resources: Betsimisarakas, \u2018Kaffirs\u2019 <\/span> who disembarked in the North West of Madagascar and were made to cross over to the east on foot, as well as Merinas.<\/p>\n

From 1722 1735, most of the Madagascan slaves on Bourbon island came from Antongil. However, as slaves were constantly captured there during this period, the source dried up in the mid 18th century.
\nIn 1758, Foulpointe became the official centre for the slave trade in Madagascar. A simple trading post was set up there with warehouses, a salve barracoon, huts and storage sheds. The decline of Foulpointe occurred in 1791, following the death of king Yavi <\/span>. In 1797, the British destroyed the palisade protecting the trading post and from then on, the slave trade was reduced to simply a few individuals.<\/p>\n

Between 1798 and 1801, Tamatave, up to now a secondary centre of the trade, took on a certain importance. While the bay of Tamatave was dangerous during the winter months and the marshy ground around the town was often the cause of fevers, the town was the coastal destination for those coming down from the high plateaus where the Marina slaves had been taken. In 1807, Decaen, the general captain of the French Indian Ocean establishments, posted the chief trading officer there, his authority extending \u2018from the Bay of Antagonil as far as Mananzary (Mananjary)\u2019. However, Tamatave never became as important as Foulpointe had been. Finally, as from 1811, the British forced the French to abandon their Madagascan trading posts.<\/p>\n

From the east coast of Africa<\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/a>
The slave trade to Bourbon island from the east coast of Africa in the 18th century.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

First, from Mozambique<\/h4>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Map of the bay of Mosambique. Jacques-Nicolas Bellin. Around 1750.
De Vill\u00e8le historical museum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Colbert set up the French Company to manage trade with the East Indies (1664), its directors began to take an interest in the east coast of Africa. However, lack of funds prevented any expeditions from being organised to this region, at the time still virtually unexplored. From time to time, Portuguese sailors would sell a few slaves from East Africa to the settlers on Bourbon island <\/span>.<\/p>\n

In 1721, the Viceroy of Portuguese India <\/span> was forced to stop off at Saint-Denis; victim of pirates <\/span>, he sailed back to Portugal on a ship belonging to the French East India Company <\/span>; to show his gratitude, he promised to write to the authorities of Mozambique asking them to facilitate slave trading in the direction of Bourbon. The first shipments, however, turned out to be disappointing, due to the heavy human losses sustained during the voyage.
\nMah\u00e9 de La Bourdonnais systematically organised trading between Mozambique and Bourbon island: each year, two expeditions were organised, bringing over several hundred slaves. The commerce ceased between 1746 and 1750, then, benefiting from complicity from the Portuguese administration, picked up again during the period of the French East India Company, even though the latter was supposed to reserve the Africans originating in Mozambique for the Brazilian market. Sources then shifted to the north: Sofala and Mozambique were abandoned in favour of the Querimbes islands, and the Muslim trading posts also started to gain popularity.<\/p>\n

The East of Africa, the main source of slaves for Bourbon island<\/h4>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Slave convoy. In \u201c\u00a0Aventures de six fran\u00e7ais aux colonies.\u201d Gaston Bonnefont. 1890.<\/p>\n

De Vill\u00e8le historical museum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During the final years of the French East India Company, the east coast of Africa, quantitatively speaking, became a far greater source than Madagascar. During the early years of the Royal Period in France, the number of \u2018Kaffirs\u2019 (Africans) disembarked on the Mascareigne islands was five times as high as the number of Madagascans.
\nIn the Portuguese possessions, the slave trade was mainly organised by the Yao, who used to sell along the coast slaves they had captured in the hinterland of lake Nyassa <\/span>.<\/p>\n

From Cape Delgado to the Gulf of Aden, the African coast was, theoretically, under the sovereignty of the Sultan of Muscat; in actual fact, the local authorities there were practically independent <\/span>, which resulted in uncertainty for the trade. Trading to Bourbon island from there had started in 1754 and apparently continued on a regular basis following the end of the monopoly by the East India Company, almost certainly culminating around 1785-1790, a period during which slaves were cheaper than those from Mozambique. Difficult to locate precisely (in many cases, the vessels were declared to have sailed from \u2018the African coast\u2019, but without any more precise details), this trade was organised within the large number of Muslim trading posts that had been set up along the coasts of what are now Tanzania, Kenya and Somalia, from Lindy in the south as far as Mogadiscio in the north, the main centres being Quiloa between 1770 and 1794, then Zanzibar from 1802.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The slave market in Zanzibar. Emile Bayard. Bayard, Emile.
De Vill\u00e8le historical museum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Illicit trading during the 19th century<\/h3>\n

In the early years of the 19th century, the economy of Bourbon island started to be centred on the production of sugar <\/span>, an agricultural and industrial activity requiring abundant slaves <\/span>, at the very time when slave trading was forbidden and slavery itself appeared threatened.
\nOn 8th January 1817, an ordinance issued by king Louis XVIII prohibited slave trading; the settlers on the island could no longer openly oppose the decisions of mainland France <\/span> and the ordinance was officially registered on 27th July 1817. However, faced with the obsessional fear of a shortage of workers, the island started trading slaves illicitly <\/span>, with some 50,000 new slaves brought into the island illegally, mostly between 1817 and 1831 <\/span>.<\/p>\n

The beginnings of the struggle against the slave trade (1817-1825)<\/h4>\n

From 1817, cases of trading began to be brought before the courts. Thanks to the governor Milius <\/span>, who cooperated with the Mauritian authorities to try and combat traders <\/span>, Bourbon island was the French colony with the largest number of seizures resulting from illicit trading. In actual fact, the magistrates of Bourbon island seldom sentenced slave traders <\/span>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Capture of a slave ship on the west coast of Madagascar. HJ Ray,
De Vill\u00e8le historical museum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Proving occurrence of illicit trading turned out to be difficult. It involved identifying the vessels concerned which, when used for the trade, were then often renamed. Inspecting a ship before it had been loaded with captives or after they had been unloaded was generally pointless. Catching a slave ship at sea could result in the captain throwing overboard his human cargo. A slave ship could only be caught out when it was disembarking its content <\/span>, so the traders mainly operated at night, in spots which, being considered dangerous, were rarely surveyed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Arab slave-traders Throwing slaves overboard to avoid capture. 19e si\u00e8cle.
De Vill\u00e8le historical museum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Attempting to identify new slaves on the island caused an outcry from the settlers, who considered this to being a form of persecution, disturbing the progress of work and triggering a spirit of rebellion within the slave community.<\/p>\n

The period of hesitation (1826-1831)<\/h4>\n

Michel Eus\u00e8be Mathias Betting de Lancastel, director-general of the interior as from October 1826, attempted to put an end to the slave trade. On the other hand, the governor De Cheffontaines <\/span> was far less severe in this respect.
\nPublic opinion was mainly favourable to the trade. The white population saw it as a way of accomplishing a sort of \u2018feat\u2019, taunting the State authorities, carrying out profitable financial operations and ensuring the economic prosperity of the island.
\nHowever, the drawbacks of the trade were becoming more and more obvious. They were, first of all, political: the authority of the Bourbon island\u2019s administration was compromised; the gulf between mainland France and its colony was widening and diplomatic pressure on France from the United Kingdom was becoming more intense <\/span>. There were also health issues: the absence of any quarantine arrangements on arrival turned out to have negative consequences for the new slaves, as well as for the entire population of the island <\/span>. Finally, there were the moral questions: since the slave trade had become illicit, conditions were even more horrendous than in the past. The vessels used were smaller and the slaves were piled up in indescribable conditions <\/span>, while at the same time any facilities likely to betray the presence of the human cargo disappeared ;<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Dhow or slave boat, theoretical cross-section, showing piling up of unfortunate slaves crouching and hidden between floorboards. In \u201cLa traite des n\u00e8gres et la croisade africaine comprenant la Lettre Encyclique de L\u00e9on XIII sur l’esclavage, le discours du Cardinal Lavigerie \u00e0 Paris,\u201d …. Alexis-Marie Gochet. 1889\u00a0\u00bb.
De Vill\u00e8le historical museum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

the death rate of the captives increased during the sea crossing, as well as on arrival, as a result of hasty nocturnal trans-shipments. All these elements reinforced the abolitionist discourse in mainland France.<\/p>\n

The end of the slave trade, now seriously repressed (1831-?)<\/h4>\n

With the July Monarchy in France, the slave trade was no longer considered simply as an offence but treated as a crime. The law voted on 4th March 1831, enacted on Bourbon island on 26th July, punished the crew, the ship-owner and the insurers of slave ships with confiscation of the vessel and its cargo, heavy fines and forced labour for the officers. In addition, those selling, dealing in and purchasing new slaves faced imprisonment.
\nOn Bourbon island, the last person to be published for slave trading (the 30th since 1818) was sentenced in 1832.
\nHowever, this was perhaps an indication that the commerce was taking place more under the carpet <\/span>. Proof that a residual form of trade took place for years was the fact that the number of slaves decreased only extremely slightly in the years following 1831. According to Hubert Gerbeau, some 4,500 were probably disembarked illicitly on Bourbon island between 1832 and 1835; Hai Quang Ho estimates that the period between 1836 and 1847 saw approximately 5,000 illegal entries. In addition, forms of labour derived from slavery were even noted on Reunion after 1848.
\nIn the 19th century, there were a large number of suppliers on the island contributing to the clandestine trade. According to Serge Daget, between 1815 and 1832, of the new slaves on the island whose origin can be defined, 43% came from the east coast of Africa (25% of these from Zanzibar), 36% from Madagascar (mainly Tamatave), 15% from the west coast of Africa (more precisely from Bonny, in the region of the Niger delta) and 6% from the region around the Cape.<\/p>\n

From the 12th century, the various forms of slave trade (occidental, oriental and internal to Africa) treated as commercial goods over 40 million human beings. Residual forms of slave trade are still present today, notably in certain Muslim countries.
\nThe trade in the direction of Bourbon island thus represented a very small portion of this trade, quantitatively speaking. On the other hand, this same trade was a major factor contributing to the demographic growth of the island. The great diversity of the geographic origins of the slaves brought to Bourbon island, inheriting a very painful past, is clearly one of the factors behind the rich ethnic diversity of the current population of Reunion <\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":263,"parent":4042,"menu_order":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-1926","documentaire","type-documentaire","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portail-esclavage-reunion.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/documentaire\/1926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portail-esclavage-reunion.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/documentaire"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portail-esclavage-reunion.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/documentaire"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portail-esclavage-reunion.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portail-esclavage-reunion.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/documentaire\/4042"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portail-esclavage-reunion.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portail-esclavage-reunion.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}