On
April 27, 1848, the Second French Republic abolished slavery in
France and all of its colonies and protectorates. This certainly
included Martinique and Guadeloupe, in the Caribbean, and it also
included French Guiana, a small French outpost perched on the “top”
of South America.
So...if
slavery was abolished on April 27, why did slaves revolt in
Martinique almost a month later? And why wasn't slavery ended in
French Guiana until June 10?
Remember—communications
between France and her New World territories, back then, were only as
fast as a ship traveling all the way across the Atlantic Ocean.
A
man named Francois Perrinon was a member of the Commission for the
abolition of slavery in Martinique, and he went to Europe to try to
get a ruling that would abolish slavery. He obtained the decree and
set off to abolish slavery in Martinique.
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| This slavery memorial is on the island of Martinique. |
However,
in the meantime, a slave had been imprisoned on Martinique, and other
slaves revolted on May 20. Slaves had revolted before, and French
soldiers had squashed the rebellions, killing many “valuable”
slaves. By this time, most people realized that slavery would soon be
abolished, so the governor of Martinique—in order to restore
calm—quickly outlawed slavery himself.
The
governor ended the rebellion by ending slavery, on May 22. Then on
June 3, Perrinon arrived, ready to end slavery on Martinique—and it
had already happened!
Rulers
of the nearby island of Guadeloupe took the hint from events on
Martinique and abolished slavery on May 28; and news of the decree
from France finally reached Guadeloupe on June 5.
Finally,
news of the decree reached farawy French Guiana on June 10!
And
then there was one...
It
used to be, in colonial times, that there were five Guianas all in a
row at the northern end of South America. From west to east, they
were:
Spanish
Guiana (now the Guayana Region of Venezuela)
British
Guiana (now the independent nation of Guyana)
Dutch
Guiana (now the independent nation of Suriname)
French
Guiana (still an overseas region of France)
Portuguese
Guiana (now Amapa, one of the states in Brazil)
Now
only French Guiana is still tied to its European colonizer, and still
has Guiana in its name. A huge part of the economy of French
Guiana derives from the fact that the Guiana Space Centre is now the
European Space Agency's primary launch site. It'a good launch site
because it is near the equator, and the water lies in a convenient
direction for splashdown of rocket stages (the portions of a rocket
used to hold fuel—which are jettisoned when the fuel is used up).
Also
on this date:
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