Forced Migrations From Le Harve
Ships departing the port of Le Havre.
I walked along the shore of Le Havre on a chilly overcast evening. As the salt wafted through the crisp oceanic air, my imagination journeyed back to the early 1700’s. Cargo ships dotted the horizon. Erasing them in my mind’s eye I pictured sail ships embarking on transatlantic expeditions. Voyages that forced its passengers to migrate to Louisiana in two different context.
Firstly, I reflected on forced French migration. Among the first wave of French migration to New Orleans were prisoners. The projection was to create a European capital for Louisiana. This created a demand for these men to have European women to take as their wives. To deliver them partners, John Law and Phillip II implored La Salpêtrière.
They arrested women, accused of prostitution, from the streets of Paris. From La Salpêtrière they carried them to Le Havre where they were shackled in a ship’s hold named La Mutine (The Mutiny). In 1719 it sailed from Le Havre bound for the Gulf Coast. Of the 132 women who were deported to New Orleans, only 62 survived.
Secondly, I reflected on forced West African migration. The first slave ships to depart France for Louisiana departed Saint-Malo (Read more about Saint-Malo here). They brought enslaved West Africans to Louisiana from Benin.
A ship named Le Ruby was the first slave-trade ship that arrived in Louisiana from the Senegal Concession. It left Le Havre in December 1719 and Gorée in May 1720 with 130 enslaved people, arriving in Louisiana in July, 1720 with 127 enslaved people.
Standing at the end of the River Seine where it flows into the English Channel at La Havre.
Between November 1720 and September 1721 the Company of the Indies sent several ships to Senegal to bring enslaved people to Louisiana. Le Maréchal d’Estrées left Le Havre for Senegal on December 15, 1720 landing 196 slaves in Louisiana.
Le Havre was also a port that received goods produced in the American colonies. It was a very moving experience walking Le Havre’s shores and contemplating the origins of the place where I live and grew up.
The present is inextricably intertwined with the past. To move forward in fraternity and equality the bulwarks erected by these histories of exploitation must be brought down. But to dismantle them we have to properly understand the roots of how they were erected.
-Eric Gabourel
There’s a boardwalk on Plage du Havre. The Casino themed kiosk is named La Louisiane (Louisiana). Go figure.