Today is Abolition Day in Martinique. This is the National Day of Martinique and commemorates a slave rebellion in 1848 on Martinique that forced Governor Claude Rostoland to issue a decree abolishing slavery.
Martinique is an Overseas Department/region and single territorial collectivity of France, and therefore an integral part of the French Republic, located in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. Christopher Columbus sighted the island in 1493 and landed on it in 1502.
Like the other major European nations at the time, France was keen to expand its reach into the new world. It established colonies on the American mainland but also took control of several islands in the Caribbean.
These new settlements needed a plentiful supply of workers to drive labor-intensive activities with high mortality rates such as sugar cane plantations, with the French turning to slaves from Africa. By 1778, the French were importing approximately 13,000 Africans for enslavement to the French West Indies.
Louis X of France had abolished slavery within the Kingdom of France way back in 1315, but that particular law never applied to the colonies despite an attempt to extend it to all parts of the Kingdom in the 16th century.
On April 27th 1848, under the Second Republic, the decree-law of Schœlcher abolished slavery in all French colonies with a general and unconditional emancipation. The state bought the slaves from the colonists and then freed them.
SIGNS of the TIMES
Today is the birthday, in 1924, of Charles Aznavour, French singer, actor, public activist and diplomat, famous for his 1974 UK No.1 single ‘She’. He was one of France’s most popular and enduring singers and was dubbed France’s Frank Sinatra, selling more than 180 million records, recording more than 1,200 songs (interpreted in nine languages) and he wrote or co-wrote more than 1,000 songs for himself and others. On 1 October 2018, Aznavour was found dead in a bathtub at his home at Mouriès at the age of 94. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajjdY070VU4
Comments