Last modified: 2025-05-10 by olivier touzeau
Keywords: marie-galante | guadeloupe | republique des douze |
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The Huecoids, after them the Arawaks, and then the Caribs were the first inhabitants of Marie-Galante. Marie-Galante was the second island encountered by Christopher Columbus during his second voyage, after Dominica. On 3 November 1493, he anchored at the islet now called Anse Ballet in Grand-Bourg, and named the island in honor of the flagship Marigalante ("gallant Mary").
On November 8, 1648, French Governor of Guadeloupe Charles Houël du Petit Pré organized the first occupation: about fifty men lived near the site called Vieux Fort "Old Fort". Jacques de Boisseret bought the island from the French Company of the West Indies on September 4, 1649. In 1653, the Carib Indians slaughtered the few remaining colonists who had not surrendered to the harsh living conditions. In 1660, a peace treaty was signed in which the Caribs authorized the French and British to settle on several islands. In 1664, Madame de Boisseret gave up her rights to Marie-Galante to the Company of the West Indies. In 1665, her son Mr. de Boisseret de Temericourt became the island's governor. The map of the island he established carries his coat of arms. During the second half of the 17th century, the first enslaved people were brought from Africa to Marie-Galante to cultivate sugarcane plantations. In 1671, 57% of the inhabitants were black. Jewish Dutch exiles from Brazil also settled, bringing new methods for the cultivation of cane sugar. In 1676, a Dutch fleet abducted the population and plundered its facilities. After the repopulation of the island, its new inhabitants were attacked for the third time by the Dutch and by the British in 1690 and 1691. These raids, which resulted in the destruction of the mills, the refineries and the depopulation of the island, caused the Governor-General of Martinique to forbid the re-population of the island until 1696.
The British retook the island from 1759 to 1763, during the Seven Years’ War. Windmills were first seen in 1780.
In Guadeloupe, the death of Governor Clugny (July 1792), followed by the fall of the Monarchy, known in September, accelerated the revolutionary process. Viscount d'Arrot, interim governor, did not have the same skill and influence as his predecessor. In addition, he was poorly regarded in Pointe-à-Pitre while Clugny had allies there. At the beginning of October, the false news of the restoration of royal power caused a reaction in Guadeloupe and Martinique. Under the "White Flag" brought back into honor, all those who had more or less deplored the fall of Louis XVI and who feared above all a radicalism of the new regime, joined forces to chase away the most ardent of the republicans. Worried but powerless, d'Arrot let them do it. When it was soon learned that the news of the restoration of the king was false, the reaction was already too compromised to give up power...
In this context, from 1792 to 1794, Marie-Galante, which was Republican, separated itself from the royalist government of Guadeloupe. The island was governed by the "République des Douze" (Republic of the Twelve [Commissionners] - source: Marie-Galante Terre d'histoire website).
The British captured Guadeloupe, and with it Marie-Galante and all Guadeloupe's dependencies, in April 1794. The Treaty of Amiens in 1802 restored them to France. With the restoration, the enslavement of Africans too was reinstated in 1802. In March 1808 the Royal Navy took possession of Marie-Galante to stop French privateers using its port. In August a small French force attempted to recapture the island but the British garrison defeated and captured the French. The British returned the island to France in 1815. Enslavement of Africans finally came to an end in 1848.
For the legislative elections of June 24 and June 25, 1849, for the first time former enslaved Africans were permitted to vote; in Marie-Galante, the elections were disrupted by the bloody violence of protesters which had risen up out of the black majority in response to ballot-rigging orchestrated by wealthy white plantation owners. Many black people were killed during these uprisings which led to the dumping of rum and sugar from the Pirogue plantation into a nearby pond. Today this pond is known as la mare au punch (‘the Punch Pond’) in memory of these tragic events.
Olivier Touzeau, 2 March 2025
From 1792 to 1794, Marie-Galante, which was Republican, separated itself from the royalist government of Guadeloupe. The island was governed by the "République des Douze" (Republic of the Twelve [Commissionners] - source: Marie-Galante Terre d'histoire website).
"In october 1792, the military commander in Marie-Galante, Desnoyers, received 2 successive letters, dated October 8 and 12, in which Governor of Guadeloupe d’Arrot asked him to replace the tricolore flag with the white flag.
On October 17, a copy of the governor’s letter was provided to the Municipal Assembly of Grand Bourg upon request. On October 19, Desnoyers displayed the white cockade of the monarchist camp. On October 23, the representatives of the Municipal Assembly of Grand Bourg met and elected 4 commissioners.
In Capesterre, Dominique Murat was already president of the Municipal Assembly of Capesterre and on October 24 he was elected among the 4 commissioners responsible for representing Capesterre at the new Commission that was being formed.
On November 1, the first meeting of the Commission in Grand Bourg with the commissioners of Grand-Bourg and Capesterre. Deshaies was elected president and Besnié, secretary. Deshaies, Murat and Pellier were responsible for drafting the internal regulations. The Commission invited Vieux Fort (Saint-Louis) to convene an assembly, to elect 4 commissioners.
On November 6, the Commission receives the results of the Vieux Fort elections: Brunel, Piérot, Acquet and Bonneterre-Roussel are appointed.
The 12 members took a civic oath: "I swear to be faithful to the Nation, to the Laws that have been made for the Colony, to the supreme head of the executive power recognized by the Nation and to fulfill
with fidelity, zeal and integrity all the duties required of the Commission"
On November 7, the Commission deliberated: 'Considering that the island of Guadeloupe, or rather its colonial assembly and its governor, being in a state of open rebellion against the metropolis, are still seeking by all sorts of means to draw us into the abyss that they are digging under their feet ... The Commission must not and does not want to be an accomplice in the rebellion of the colonial assembly
and Mr. D'Arrot against the Nation... The Commission decides that it will immediately denounce Mr. D'Arrot and the acting commander to the Nation... Decides that the national ensign [pavillon national] will be flown at the Fort today and that the municipal officers of the island will be invited to ensure that no one displays any sign prohibited by the decree of the National Assembly of July 4 and to denounce to the judicial power those who contravene this decree...
The Commission writes to "Gentlemen civil commissioners and Mr. Commander of the forces of the Nation ", that is to say General Rochambeau, who had taken refuge in St Domingue: "We have seen with pain the banner of revolt unfurl around us and this signal be everywhere that of bloody proscriptions and tortures, these sad and painful events have not been able to shake our loyalty to the Nation…
Drawing from the ardor of our patriotism the energy of the fre French, we have pronounced our split with Guadeloupe visibly in rebellion. We have dismissed our Commander for having worn the white cockade, we have finally solemnly raised the national ensign [pavillon national] on our fort and made in its shadow the new oath to be faithful to the Nation, to the Law and to the supreme head of the executive power…"
"It is from you that we expect the protection that our courage deserves. It is to you that we ask a patriotic military leader and a large detachment to compete with us in the defense of a Constitution that we have sworn to maintain until the last drop of our blood..."
Before 1794, there was no French national flag. The B-W-R cockade spontaneously gave rise to the use, on land, in France, of tricolour flags, most often with horizontal stripes, without established order (W/R/B, R/W/B, B/W/R...) The national ensign to which the Marie-Galante commissioners refer is therefore very probably the naval ensign adopted in 1790, white, with a R/W/B canton and its outer border blue at the hoist and red at the fly.
Olivier Touzeau, 2 March 2025