Torcy: a slave cemetery in French Guiana
Author(s): Catherine RIGEADE
Year: 2013
Summary
Torcy cemetery is located on the right bank of the River Mahury in Guiana, alongside a row of piles from the Torcy canal. Erosion has exposed both the foundations of a chapel dating from the nineteenth century, and a large part of the associated cemetery. Archival research has shown that between 1845 and early 1848 the church was dedicated to the education and burial of the slave population. Due to the rapid degradation of the ruins, an overall assessment of the site's chapel and cemetery was required by DRASSM. This was undertaken in 2011 by the Arkaeos Association, in collaboration with the DRAC SRA Guyana. The cemetery's original character stems from its topography (construction of a building of worship and religious reserved for slaves), its geographical location, and its association with the construction of the canal; it differs from other burial sites in Guadeloupe and Reunion.
Cite this Record
Torcy: a slave cemetery in French Guiana. Catherine RIGEADE. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Leicester, England, U.K. 2013 ( tDAR id: 428400)
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Keywords
General
Anthropology
•
cimetery
•
Slavery
Geographic Keywords
France
•
Western Europe
Temporal Keywords
Nineteenth Century
Spatial Coverage
min long: -4.777; min lat: 41.367 ; max long: 9.553; max lat: 51.091 ;
Individual & Institutional Roles
Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology
Record Identifiers
PaperId(s): 379