La Mulâtresse Solitude

La Mulatresse Solitude

La Mulatresse Solitude was born around 1772, she was a rebel in the fight against slavery in Guadeloupe. She was the daughter of slaves and grew up to eventually join the Maroons of Guadeloupe. In 1802 Napolean Bonaparte enacted a law reinstating slavery in the French colonies which started a rebellion by Louis Delgres, leader of the Armies of the Republic who resisted the reoccupation. La Mulatresse Solitude joined his cause and fought by his side for freedom. The slave rebellion had come to an end when Delgres and others had blown themselves up in a mountain fortress by lighting a barrel of gunpowder with his pipe as the French troops charged in. Other freedom fighters where hung on Constantin Hill, in the heights of Basse-Terre, their bodies exposed to the elements. Many women and children had also sacrificed their lives in the final battle. The occupation force killed approximately 10,000 Guadeloupeans in the process of re-taking the island from the rebels. On May 8th 1802, La Mulatresses was captured and imprisoned by the French, at the time of her capture she was with a child. They delayed her execution until November 29, 1802 because her child was the property of a slave owner. Exactly one day after the birth of her child La Mulatresse's execution was carried out by hanging.

A statue in her memory sculpted by Jacky Poulier was erected on Heros aux Abymes Boulevard in Guadeloupe in 1999. In 2007 a statue was erected in her memory in the ile-de-France region of Hauts-de-Seine for the celebration of the abolition of slavery and the slave trade. This statue is made of iroko, a kind of African wood and steel. Sculpter Nicolas Alquin acknowledges that it is the first memorial to all "enslaved people who resisted."

La Mulatresse Solitude is currently being considered for inclusion in the French Pantheon, that celebrates the memory of distinguished French citizens.

*Source: wikipedia