Context: Freedom, slavery and oppression

For people of colour living under colonial rule in the 18th-century Caribbean, life choices were limited and precarious. Most lived in slavery working on plantations owned by white Europeans, although there were also smaller numbers who were free. The free population were often the children of enslaved women and white plantation owners, but despite their freedom, they could still be subject to white authority. The institution of slavery permeated every facet of Caribbean life, and racism and discrimination were part of everyday life for people of colour. Despite this, many found ways of challenging white authority and oppression by both passive and active forms of resistance.

In 1794 slavery was abolished on the French island of Guadeloupe in the eastern Caribbean. Many slaves left the plantations but a system of low paid obligatory plantation work was maintained – work that was often undertaken by women. Many newly freed men joined French military units and fought against Britain in the war that had broken out in 1793. Participation in military service enabled former slaves to establish their identity as free French citizens and offered the prospect of a career, promotion and marriage. Opportunities that, as slaves, would have been unthinkable. Those who did not join the military were coerced for the good of the new Republic to continue working on plantations as cultivateurs with little or no pay, and very little time off.

Journey one: Returned to slavery

It is 1794 and you have been emancipated from slavery on the island of Guadeloupe. Rather than join the military and fight against Britain, you choose to stay in Guadeloupe and work as a ‘free’ cultivateur. However, your status as a free person of colour does not last long.

As the French Revolution evolved, ideas about freedom and equal rights for people of colour began to shift back towards their pre-Revolution status. As a result, men and women of colour, including soldiers, were at risk once more of having their status as free citizens of the French Republic challenged by those who had previously owned them.

Those who did not or could not go into the French Army experienced a more restrictive form of freedom. Many were coerced into returning to the plantations to continue working on the land, often for little or no reward. The abolition of slavery had, for these workers, brought little benefit beyond the hope of change. Change was, in the end, short lived. By 1802 the political landscape had changed and Napoleon had begun to re-establish a system of slavery once more on French islands.

Journey three: Enlisted into the French military

After several months as a prisoner of war at Portchester Castle, you are eventually released and sent to France. There you are consolidated into the Black Pioneers, a new battalion in the French military.

Towards the end of 1797, almost a year after they had first arrived at Portchester, the soldiers from the Caribbean began to be released from prison and sent to France as part of prisoner exchanges. Once in France, some may have returned to the Caribbean to continue fighting in the military campaigns there. Most remained in France, and were ordered to the Île d’Aix, off the west coast of France. On the island many had their ranks and commissions taken away and there were continual problems with providing supplies for them and paying them.

Eventually they were formed into a new fighting force, the Bataillon des Pionniers Noirs (Black Pioneers), before becoming le Royal-Africain regiment. In around 1806 they were sent to Italy to provide military support to the Kingdom of Naples, and they also fought for Napoleon across Europe and Russia.

These well trained and experienced soldiers fought and died in the Caribbean and in Europe to earn their right to be considered free citizens of the French Republic. New research is beginning to reveal that some may have settled in France, where they married and started a new life in towns and villages across France.

When Napoleon began to re-establish slavery on Guadeloupe, Delgrès and other soldiers and civilians tried to resist the changes and eventually took up arms – this time against France. On 28th May 1802, Delgrès made his last stand against the French army at Matouba, where he would have seen a familiar face among the ranks of his enemy.

Leading the military campaign against him was his former comrade in arms, Magloire Pélage. Pélage had initially stood against Napoleon too, but as the situation grew more complex he eventually decided that siding with the French was the best option.

With Pélage and the French army closing in on them, Delgrès and his followers lit their gunpowder stores and blew themselves up rather than be captured and enslaved. There is a memorial to Delgrès on Guadeloupe and an inscription honouring him in the Panthéon in Paris where distinguished French citizens are buried or commemorated. 

For Pélage, fighting for France in a world of changing ideologies and witnessing the violent death of a former comrade must have left its mark. Little is yet known about his life after the war, but some years later he is recorded as living in a town to the north of Paris with his family.