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The Nantes History Museum retraces the colonial past of its city through an exhibition called “The Abyss”. The directors of the museum wish to show this dark part of the history of France through unique collection pieces. The exhibition will run until June 22, 2022.
The Nantes History Museum presents an exhibition on the theme of the slave trade and the city’s colonial past, named The abyss, Nantes in the Atlantic slave trade and colonial slavery, 1707-1830 . The choice of the term “abyss” is a reference to one of Edouard Glissant’s texts in which he evokes the deportation and the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by captives between the African and American continent. Between the 17th century and the 19th century, more than 500,000 slaves boarded Nantes ships.
Through objects coming almost exclusively from the collections of the Nantes History Museum, the exhibition seeks to show the horrors suffered by slaves. “We see in the details of this image the material reality of what this trade, this deportation and this dehumanization was. And here, we see that the space of the ship is a concentration camp “, explains Krystel Gualdé, scientific director of the Nantes history museum. The exhibition The Abyss also details the lifestyles of the time and the will of the men behind this enterprise of human exploitation.
The creation of such an exhibition, which will be held until June 19, 2022, aims to take on this part of the story. “This is the history of France. It is important that it be taught in schools. Because the more it will be known, the more it will be shared. The more we will live with a feeling of shared memory. The stake is to to be a society. This is why we cannot leave aside entire sections of our history “ testifies Jean-Marc Ayrault, former mayor of Nantes.
According to the Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery in Nantes, at least 4,220 slave expeditions were organized in France over this period, including more than 1,700 from Nantes.