Souvenir de l’Ile de la R\u00e9union, N\u00b0 65. Native slaves: Negress maid, black domestic.
Louis Antoine Roussin. June 1848. Lithography.
Departmental Archives of Reunion Island Collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nDoes this mean that none of these Freedmen fought against the policies concerning colour? It would be a great injustice to claim so. First of all, these people were by far the most active in freeing slaves: Freedmen of colour emancipated four times as many slaves as white men, and free women of colour fifteen times more than white women! <\/span>
\nThe reality is that the colonial authorities set up ruthless policies around colour. From the time of Mah\u00e9 de La Bourdonnais, any Freedmen who captured or killed an escaped slave would receive a slave as a reward; any slave who denounced a plot (imaginary or not) became a Freedman… And everything that came with it. The first to rise up against this atmosphere of terror were victims of merciless repression. During the turmoil of the French Revolution, Jean-Jacques Ramalinga and Guillou Dubertin were banished, the first without any trial, and the second without any proven charges against him.
\nThen there was the case of Furcy. Bolstered by his given right to be released from servitude under Lory, and with the support of Sully Brunet, he brought a lawsuit against his master which lasted from 1817 to 1843. There were two more trials in Bourbon in 1845. What is revealing is that Lory became frightened, despite the support he received from the Desbassayns clan who unofficially ruled the island at the time. He preferred to send Furcy to Mauritius so that he would not become an example to others, a leader capable of making things happen. While legally free in Mauritius, Furcy worked as a confectioner, and was able to correspond and pay the necessary legal fees.
\nThe story of Timag\u00e8ne Houat is even more telling. It remained hidden for a century before his book, Les marrons<\/em>, Reunion\u2019s first ever novel, was republished in Reunion Island, first published in Paris. But this individual was more than just a writer, as he was Reunion\u2019s first true abolitionist. So here is his story, the one we like to tell and which gives us hope for our island <\/span>. Born in Bas de la Rivi\u00e8re Saint-Denis on 12th August 1809, Timag\u00e8ne kept his African name. His father came from Port-Louis and was a bridge and road builder. At the age of 18, Timag\u00e8ne wanted to open a school in his neighbourhood of La Rivi\u00e8re, but was refused by the Director of the Interior. \u201cIn 1830, in a house located on the corner of Rue des Limites and Rue du Grand Chemin, Louis-Timag\u00e8ne Houat ran a free school for all the young people in his neighbourhood, introducing the more gifted to music (guitar or violin)\u201d<\/em> <\/span>. Together with Charles de Sigoyer, he applied to be a member for parliament, representing Bourbon in 1834. In September 1835 he wanted to organise a demonstration in the capital, with the aim of asking the governor for the abolition of slavery: \u201cWe will impose our will by our numbers, but I do not want there to be any crimes committed against whites\u201d.<\/em> Denounced, this demonstration never place. Instead, a court case for a so-called conspiracy was organised. Houat’s crime: corresponding with Cyrille Bissette, receiving his newspapers and reading it to slaves around him. On 10th September 1835, Timag\u00e8ne was put into solitary confinement and sentenced on 3rd August 1836 with three others to be deported. Three other Freedmen were sentenced to five years in prison. Four slaves were sentenced to life imprisonment and deported to Sainte-Marie Island. In spite of the pardon granted on 18th June 1837 by King Louis-Philippe, the sentence was carried out and Timag\u00e8ne found himself in Paris. The Court of Cassation, however, expunged him of this sentence.<\/p>\nGenealogical work revealing family histories shows that the families of the period around 1848 were constantly humiliated and crushed in their efforts to progress. They had been deprived of their history, and wanted to be able to rebuild their lives. But they also had to understand that it was not by denying their ancestry and victimizing themselves in front of theirs masters that they would regain their honour. Their ancestors were not just slaves but men and women, quite simply. Their dignity had to be restored to them wherever possible. The question of surnames, and that of appointments in public spaces and institutions is therefore of great importance. The Department and its museums cannot dodge this question: what name should be given to the only slavery museum on the island?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3046,"parent":1874,"menu_order":20,"template":"","class_list":["post-4279","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\/4279","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\/5"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portail-esclavage-reunion.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/documentaire\/1874"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portail-esclavage-reunion.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portail-esclavage-reunion.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}