Tribute to the Resistance Against Slavery

You can’t talk about the history of Réunion without facing one of its darkest chapters: slavery. To understand how it took root on Bourbon Island, as Réunion was once called, we need to pick up from where we left off. Things began relatively calmly. The island’s remoteness meant it was treated a bit differently from other colonies. In 1665, Jean-Baptiste Colbert created the French East India Company and sent around 200 settlers, with very limited resources. Women also arrived from France, Madagascar and the Portuguese Indies. In 1668, Anne Mousse was born, considered the grandmother of all Réunionnais and the first woman born on the island. In 1674, after a rebellion in Madagascar, the French fled and took refuge in Bourbon. A few decades later, in 1712, the Dutch abandoned Mauritius, and the French seized it, renaming it Isle de France. From then on, focus shifted toward this new, more strategically located island. The governor even moved his headquarters there. Meanwhile, back in Bourbon, life carried on more freely. But even a distant colony had to be profitable. In the 18th century, France was losing ground in the Indian Ocean. Pondicherry brought in far less than British-held Madras. Bourbon was back on the radar, and France needed it to deliver. Since there were no mines or valuable crops, but a perfect tropical climate, they brought coffee plants from Arabia and made cultivation compulsory. Those who refused risked losing their land. Destroying a plant could mean death. By then, slavery had already been in place for over a century in the Americas and the French Caribbean. It was seen as the solution for cheap labour. But Réunion’s location meant enslaved people were brought from various regions, not through the transatlantic trade. Bourbon, once marked by cultural mixing, was now governed by the Code Noir. Society was divided by skin colour, and new rules were brutally enforced. Governor Mahé de La Bourdonnais used Bourbon as a pantry for his troops on Isle de France. He built roads, barracks, hospitals, and strengthened the slave system, with militias created to track down runaways. Between 1720 and 1750, the enslaved population grew from 6,000 to over 21,000. On an island of 25,000 residents, that’s staggering. Conditions were harsh, and many risked everything for a chance at freedom. Some escaped into the island’s rugged interior, a practice known as marronage. These fugitives, or marrons, vanished into the remote cirques and forests, carving out hidden lives far from the authorities. In 1764, after the Seven Years’ War, the French East India Company collapsed, and the Crown took over the Mascarene Islands. The enslaved population had risen to 45,000, now tasked with growing spices like cloves and nutmeg. Then came the French Revolution, and the Declaration of the Rights of Man, but ideals clashed with colonial realities. Planters refused the first abolition of slavery in 1796, forming a local assembly to oppose the Republic. Any uprisings were crushed. In 1799, rebels were tied to cannons and executed. In 1801, Napoleon regained control and quickly reinstated slavery. Two major events shaped the next chapter, a hurricane destroyed spice crops on what was now called Isle Bonaparte, and Haiti declared its independence. Haiti had been France’s top sugar colony, but now, Réunion was expected to take over. The island soon saw its largest revolt, the Saint-Leu uprising. In 1848 the July Monarchy was overthrown, the Second French Republic was born, and slavery was officially abolished in April 1848. The real turning point came on December 20, when the Republic’s commissioner, Sarda Garriga, arrived in person to declare the end of slavery, freeing 62,000 people. Yet freedom came with conditions. Former slaves had to work or risk arrest for vagrancy. Many fled into the mountains once again. About two-thirds of the newly freed population died without descendants. For a long time, the story of slavery on Bourbon was silenced. The duty to remember is still recent. The statue you see here honours Géréon and Jasmin, two enslaved men who were beheaded during the 1811 Saint-Leu revolt. One of them holds his severed head high, as if willing it to return to his body and carry on the fight. His message is clear: he lives on, as do the struggles of all those who fought for the simple right to exist.