About twelve million Africans were deported to the Americas and sold as slaves. Among them, four million women crossed the ocean to find themselves under the yoke of slavers. Three minutes to understand the place of women in the time of slavery with “Les Outre-mer Otherwise”.
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From the 15th to the 19th century, between 12 and 15 million inhabitants of Africa were uprooted from their lands to be enslaved in European colonies. France transported nearly 1.25 million slaves by boat to its colonies. Among them, one in three slaves was a woman.
code black
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The text of the Black Code does not differentiate between male and female slaves. They have the status of “movable objects”. The only existing distinction is the status of mother. The Black Code thus specifies that a child born of a slave mother will be a slave.
Belly of a pregnant slave woman
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At the beginning of colonial slavery, the masters preferred to bring in new slaves rather than found families. But from 1815, the slave trade was prohibited. Births are then favoured. The belly of the woman becomes an “investment” allowing to renew the slaves.
In the sugar cane plantations, women had to do the same work as men, as well as household chores. In addition to this forced labor, they were often victims of sexual exploitation and rape.
There are few direct testimonies of these female slaves in the French colonies. Accounts are rare, but some female figures in the fight against slavery marked these periods, even if they are sometimes more fiction than historical reality.
- Guadeloupe: the mulatto Solitude
the mulatto Solitude
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The best known is the mulatto Solitude in Guadeloupe. It is an oral testimony transmitted to the historian Auguste Lacour who made it known. Solitude is a symbol of the 1802 revolution. Imprisoned, she was sentenced to death while pregnant. He is executed the day after the birth of his child. Its history has been widely known thanks to the novel by André Schwartz-Bart Mulatto Solitude published in 1972.
Heva
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In Reunion, Héva is a symbol of the marronage, the flight of slaves. For 25 years, she is the companion d’Anchaing, a famous chestnut. She was captured in 1740, but her fate is unknown.
Claire, Guyana
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In Guyana, the figure of Claire illustrates the figure of the communities created by runaway slaves. Captured with her companion Copena, she was strangled and then hung in front of her children.
The place of women in slavery is still largely unknown, especially outside the former colonies. A symbolic step was taken in 2020, a garden in Paris was baptized in the name of Solitude. A statue must be installed there, it will be the first of a black woman in Paris.
Production, illustrations and animation: Valentine Dubois
Production : Corner Prod / France Televisions
Year : 2022