Cover image: "Convoi des femmes Africaines captives" 
Alphonse Lévy
19th century, Brown and gray ink wash
Reproduction on display at Musée d'Aquitaine
Image source: Slavery Images
License: CC-BY-NC 4.0

Last year, Tom and I visited La Rochelle to discover the city from the perspective of its involvement with slavery and the triangular slave trade.

A few days ago, we visited Bordeaux with the same objective in mind.

We spent four days in the city, visiting several museums and experiencing two walking tours offered by Mémoires et Partages, a nonprofit association whose mission is to invest in and promote the tangible and intangible heritage of slavery and the slave trade by celebrating the history of struggles for freedom.

Part 1 of this article presents what we learned by visiting museums.

On the afternoon of our arrival, we went to the Musée d'Aquitaine.  It houses collections that trace the history of Bordeaux and the New Aquitaine region from prehistory to the present day.

Musée d'Aquitaine
© Entrée to Black Paris

The Bordeaux Office of Tourism sent guide Janneke Dufourquet-Wildeboer to provide us with an extraordinary private visit to the rooms dedicated to slavery and the slave trade, which were inaugurated when Bordeaux hosted the National Commemoration of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and their Abolition on May 10, 2009.

Topics addressed in the expansive section of the museum include representations of the wealth amassed by Bordelais citizens involved in slavery and the trade, the importance of direct trade (commerce en droiture) between the French colonies and Bordeaux compared to the triangular trade, and the Enlightenment movement to abolish slavery.

Several short films punctuate the exhibition.  Topics range from the voyages of a ship used for direct trade, graphic depictions of the growth of the slave trade over the centuries, and a "biopic" of a slave trader who narrates a particularly long voyage that took him to the east coast of Africa to find enough captives to take to the French colonies.

Graphic depiction of the number of captives taken to the Americas between 1701 and 1800
© Entrée to Black Paris

One small room spotlights the Arab-Muslim (aka Trans-Saharan) slave trade and the Indian Ocean slave trade.  It features several photos of enslaved people from the eastern coast of Africa and neighboring islands in the Indian Ocean.

A large room at the end of the exhibit focuses on the prominent role Bordeaux played in the colonization of Saint-Domingue (now Haïti) and devotes an entire wall to the Haïtian Revolution and the first several leaders of the newly freed nation.

On this wall is a portrait of a man presumed to be Isaac, son of Toussaint Louverture, the principal leader of the Haîtian Revolution.

Presumed Portrait of Isaac Louverture
Oscar Gué (?)
c. 1848
Oil on paper
Image © Entrée to Black Paris

Visitors who wish to thoroughly investigate this section of the museum should plan to spend at least three full hours there.

We visited the Musée Mer Marine during the afternoon on the following day.  We had asked the tourism office to set up a guided tour there, but we were told that there wasn't enough content on our subject matter to warrant hiring a guide.  

After our tour, we agreed that this was an accurate assessment. 

The museum examines ocean sailing from prehistory to the present day.  The majority of the displays in the several thousand square meter space are composed of ship models.  We found three direct references to slavery and the slave trade:

• A sculpture of Robert Surcouf, a corsair who participated in illegal slave trading during the French Revolution,
• A figurehead in the form of a Black man that was meant to represent the enslaved / soon to be enslaved populations of Africa and the French colonies with a model of the slave ship L'Aurore, and
• A short film about Lafayette, which mentioned the Marquis' belief that in supporting the American Revolution, he was supporting the liberation of enslaved people in what was to become the United States.

Display - Navigation in Service of the Slave Trade
© Entrée to Black Paris

A single panel talked about France "opening up" to the Antilles and described the goods traded between the islands and Bordeaux.  It mentioned the fact that Bordeaux citizens organized roughly 10% of France's slave trade.

On the upper floor of the museum, a loaned work entitled Bienvenue (Welcome) 2019 by Jean Rooble is displayed above the entrance to the permanent collection. 

Bienvenue (Welcome), 2019 on upper level
Jean Rooble
© Entrée to Black Paris

In a room behind the display, there are enormous photographs inspired by Gericault's Raft of the Medusa.  They address the challenges that migrants fleeing hunger and oppression face as they attempt to cross oceans and seas in search of a better life.

The Raft of Illusions
Gérard Rincinan
© Entrée to Black Paris

In the room that features Lafayette, there is a poster of President Barack Obama.  It describes Obama as being the first head of state to contact France after the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris and the neighboring town of Saint-Denis and places this action in the context of the over 200 years of Franco-American friendship sealed by Lafayette's support of the American Revolution.

Obama info panel
© Entrée to Black Paris

On the third day of our visit, we toured a private museum called the Musée de l'Histoire Maritime de Bordeaux.  M. Stéphane Binaud, the museum's founder, guided us through an impressive collection of ship models, nautical instruments, and artifacts belonging to Bordelais families.

This museum focuses on the maritime history of Bordeaux, including its crescent-shaped port, its access to two rivers, and its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean. The displays that present Bordeaux's involvement in slavery and the slave trade were few, but they were packed with information. 

M. Binaud spent considerable time talking with us about the construction of ships created specifically for transporting captives to the French colonies, the effect of competition among slave holding European countries on the decision by many Bordelais to prefer direct trade over the triangular trade, and the large number of Bordelais who owned the plantations and enslaved the people who produced the goods that were sent from Saint Domingue to France through the direct trade. 

Cross section of slave ship model
© Entrée to Black Paris

He emphasized that during the 19th century, Saint Domingue—which was dominated by Bordelais plantation owners—was the largest producer of coffee in the world. 

Coffee and cocoa bean display
© Entrée to Black Paris

This museum also has a display featuring Lafayette and his support of the American Revolution. 

I was surprised to see a display that featured Bordeaux's dominance in the peanut trade that resulted from two Bordelais brothers establishing trading posts in Senegal in the 19th century.

Bordeaux and peanuts display
© Entrée to Black Paris

The fortune they amassed depended in part on forced labor and other exploitative practices that existed in colonial Senegal.

Come back next week for Part 2 of this article, which will present the walking tours we took with Mémoires et Partages.