Slavery and memory in France’s former colony: designing the commemoration of memory at the Loyola cemetery while respecting sensibilities of history

Summary

Our paper reflects on the development of a commemoration concept which takes into account the sensibilities of descendants from the slave trade period in French Guiana. Memory of the trade period is a sensitive issue among most Caribbean Islands; our 16-year experience of research at one site presents various questions with which we are confronted in order for the local population to appropriate the spirit of place. Under Jesuit rule the Loyola Plantation comprised an area making slightly over 1000 hectares; at one point, there were nearly 500 slaves who toiled at producing a number of cash crops such as sugar, coffee, indigo, rum etc. under the close supervision of a handful of missionaries. From the remains of the cemetery where approximately 1000 people (Slaves, Amerindian and White land owners) have been interred, our motivation is to draw the fine line between commemoration of memory and glorification of history.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Historical (Colonial) Archaeology in the French Départements d’Outre Mer.   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2013

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 426