Français
With his orange sneakers, baggy pants and red shirt, Fredrik Thomasson doesn't look like the usual historian. In fact, the Swedish academic walked through the gates of the Collège Mireille Choisy on Tuesday, October 8 in a very relaxed manner. The following day, this specialist in colonization in the French West Indies, who has been researching the history of slavery in Saint-Barthélemy for the past thirteen years, will take part in the ceremony commemorating the abolition of slavery by the Kingdom of Sweden on October 9, 1847. For the time being, he has an appointment with 4th grade students. To discuss the Swedish presence and slavery in Saint-Barth, of course.
In room 5, the pupils listen studiously to Fredrik Thomasson's introduction. Not only to better understand where the historian intends to take them over the course of an hour, but also to soak up his accent, so as not to miss a crumb of his talk. "Please forgive me for the quality of my French," apologizes the researcher. No doubt many of the students had the same thought: "I wish I could apologize for the level of my Swedish with the same ease. "Whatever the case, Fredrik Thomasson immediately invites the students to interrupt him to ask questions. "It'll be easier than waiting until the end," he smiles. He won't be disappointed.
300,000 pages of archives
The historian easily adapts his talk to his young audience. After a historical summary of Sweden's acquisition of Saint-Barth from France, he uses overhead projection to unveil two maps of Gustavia. One of these, dated 1788, shows a harbor embroidered with barely a few houses. In simple words and without beating about the bush, he describes the organization of the slave trade, the fate of the Africans landed and sold on Saint-Barth, the tasks they were forced to perform, and so on. "During the Swedish period, the population was 74% black and 26% white," he explains. Using illustrations, he details life on the island in the 18th and 19th centuries. Then the questions come.
What language did the slaves speak? Was the treatment of slaves less harsh in Saint-Barth than in the rest of the West Indies? Were they allowed to marry? Was a religion imposed on them? Fredrik Thomasson endeavors to provide precise answers to all these questions, and to others raised in the course of his presentation. Even if it's sometimes difficult to be categorical, as the historian points out, a great deal of work and research remains to be done.
To illustrate his point, he shows a photo of the archives in Aix-en-Provence, where documents from the Swedish era are kept. There are around forty meters of documentation and 300,000 pages," explains the researcher. I haven't read them all yet! I haven't read them all yet," he says, "but judging by the curiosity of some of the schoolchildren, it's possible that one day one of them will decide to delve into this mountain of archived documents in Provence.
