Nantes, a metropolis that prospered from maritime commerce however for greater than a century it was additionally France’s largest slave-trading port. Today the town is acknowledging this with one among Europe’s most vital memorials to the transatlantic slave commerce.
Agnès Poras is a tour information at The Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery: “When you come to this place you face 2,000 boards on the ground floor which takes you to a part of history, like the vessel’s names, and the counters, which are all represented here. You’ve got more than 1,700 boats names represented, so that faces you with the big investment of the port of Nantes and the traders and ship owners and to the slave trade in the 18th century.”
Across city on the metropolis’s historic museum and chateau, Château des ducs de Bretagne, holds additional information of Nantes’ position within the slave commerce. Inside, reveals embody plantation registers, transport logs, and work that doc the pressured motion of individuals throughout continents. Models depict the plantations the place enslaved people had been pressured to work, producing items that fuelled European economies.
Bertrand Guillet is director of Château des ducs de Bretagne. He says: “We are here in a room within the Nantes History Museum dedicated to the Atlantic slave trade and colonial slavery, particularly in this room. We are describing a journey of a Nantes slave ship since Nantes was, in the 18th century, the leading French city specialised in the Atlantic slave trade and in the deportation of slaves from Africa to America. It was the fourth largest slave trading city in Europe, and more than 500,000 enslaved people were deported by Nantes ships during the 18th century. Nantes also has another characteristic, perhaps a little less known, which is that it was also the first city involved in the illegal slave trade in the 19th century.”
One of probably the most important items is a 1770 watercolour of the Marie-Séraphique, a ship from Nantes that transported enslaved individuals. The picture, drawn and signed by these concerned within the commerce, gives a uncommon up to date file of how captives had been confined under deck. Alongside it, shackles, ceramics, and private testimonies illustrate totally different features of the commerce and its impression.
Guillet continues: “Nantes developed a relationship with America very early, beginning in the 17th century, and at one point, the necessity to specialize became a notable fact for the shipowners seeking destiny in relation to the colonization of the American islands. And this specialization of the Atlantic space would ultimately allow them, thanks to an accumulation of capital, to finally outfit ships specialized for the slave trade. And this commerce truly became the foundation of Nantes’ port economy in the 18th century.”
Among the ship fashions on show is Le Dorade, which carried as much as 150 enslaved people. For guests, these shows supply a deeper understanding of the town’s previous and supply classes to be discovered on societal tolerance. Marcian visited the museum along with his son. Reflecting on how the town’s previous can supply insights into the longer term he says: “This is a big question because I think they are still a little bit aware and we also have to be able to open our eyes to realize what is happening, especially with everything we see politically in France today, in Europe, in the world. People tend to turn their backs on each other a little and not want to see what is before their eyes. Unfortunately, we see a rise in racism, xenophobia. If we took more people to see this kind of thing more perhaps it would limit the phenomena, but unfortunately people tend to forget very quickly.”
As night falls, the glass panels catch the final mild of the day; their inscriptions glowing softly towards the darkening sky. The names on the bottom change into shadows, stretching throughout the pathway. The Loire, which as soon as carried ships on their journeys, now displays the town’s efforts to acknowledge its previous. The memorial stands as a reminder, not simply of historical past, however of the continuing battle towards slavery in all its types. Poras says: “The first object of memory was a statue in 1998 which came to celebrate the 150 years of the abolition of slavery in France was completely pulled down the first night it was set on the quay. So when you think that memory is easy, it’s an easy subject to deal with, in France it’s a big subject for many cities to say ‘do we keep the ship merchants on the street lanes?’ do we have to keep memories of names which we’re shameful of and today the policy of Nantes is to say we’re not going to take off this connection to history but we’re going to explain.”
Once a metropolis that thrived on the commerce of human lives, Nantes now seeks to protect their reminiscence. Through this memorial, its museum and public dialogue, it continues to confront its previous – one title, one story, one reflection at a time.
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