During these extremely difficult voyages, fights were frequent, many passengers threw themselves into the water preferring death to enslavement or stirred up rebellions against the crews. This representation, which could be described as 'dehumanized', very focused on triangular 'commerce', does not sufficiently highlight the numerous revolts during the journeys which have nevertheless been documented by many historians. Shot of Nantes slave ship, Marie-Sépharique. The images conveyed in school textbooks show beings with similar faces and bodies, heads bowed, or stretched out. 'In France, slavery is often presented in a way that suggests that people were passive and docile. This chapter of French history, however, remains largely unknown within the population and still generates many clichés, according to the committed intellectual Rokhaya Diallo, who works to deconstruct ethno-racial prejudices.Īn observation that she declines in three examples for France 24. : Commemoration of the victims of slavery: the Taubira law, 20 years later On May 10, commemorations are organized across the country to mark the National Day of Remembrance of the slave trade, slavery and their abolition.Ī special event this year, since it coincides with the 20th anniversary of the Taubira law, declaring the slave trade and slavery a 'crime against humanity'. Between the 16th and 17th centuries, France deported more than 2 million Africans to its West Indian colonies, including 800,000 in Saint-Domingue, which became Haiti.

Oblivion trade and commerce