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In her final thesis, “Arts and Heritage” student Emilia Felicia Klause examines the mechanisms that have gradually erased slavery from the collective narrative.
The history of Saint Barthélemy is being studied as far away as the Netherlands. A student at Maastricht University pursuing a master’s degree in “Arts and Heritage” has dedicated her thesis to the history of slavery on the island—or rather, to the memory of slavery. Through her study titled “Forgetting and Remembering Slavery in Saint-Barthélemy,” Emilia Felicia Klause sought to understand why slavery occupies such a marginal place in the collective memory of Saint-Barthélemy’s residents.
To carry out this work, the student conducted numerous interviews with local figures such as Richard Lédée and Arlette Magras, politicians such as Bruno Magras and Bettina Cointre, historian Fredrik Thomasson, as well as tourists and island residents. “No one refused to talk to me about this subject, but there was sometimes some discomfort,” Emilia explains. During her first visit to the island, the Franco-German student was intrigued by the lack of visibility of Saint Barth’s slave-trading past in the public sphere. Throughout the fifty pages of her thesis, she explores several possible explanations for this marginalization, such as the inaccessibility of archives, the loss of oral history, gaps in local history within the national education system, and the inaccurate narratives disseminated by the tourism industry in the 2000s.
Misleading Narratives Spread by the Tourism Industry
“In many tourist guidebooks and unofficial websites, it has been claimed that slavery did not exist in Saint Barth,” says Emilia. “This has had a real impact on public understanding of the subject, and above all, it has rendered the island’s Black community invisible.” ” In her thesis, the student includes a letter published in 2009 in our newspaper (JSB819) in which a resident named Henri Louis expressed his outrage after a report on the TV show *Sept à Huit* portrayed the island as inhabited solely by white people. “I would also like to clarify for anyone who might be wondering: while we are certainly in the minority, we are not descended from Normans or Bretons; we are most likely the result of slavery,” he states. According to the student, one question remains: “Was there an intention to share misinformation, or was it a lack of knowledge that was turned into a selling point for the tourist destination, to present Saint Barth as an exceptional case in the Caribbean?”
Trivialization of the Violence of Slavery
Emilia also attributes this collective amnesia to the unique role Saint Barth played in slave-based economies. The island did not have large plantations but still had a system of slavery, as Gustavia was built primarily by slaves. “I’ve often heard people ask, ‘How could the people of Saint Barth have owned slaves when they were themselves very poor?’” she explains. “This past doesn’t fit with the identity of the people of Saint Barth, with the collective narrative of extreme poverty. ” This makes it all the more difficult to accept. When questioned by Emilia, Bruno Magras does not deny slavery but compares it to the conditions of extreme poverty in which the first settlers lived. This line of reasoning trivializes “the structural violence of slavery” and “downplays its historical significance.” “Slavery, like any other subject, deserves its place in the transmission of the island’s heritage,” Emilia argues. The student suggests cultural initiatives to contextualize this part of history and make it more accessible to the public. For example, by displaying a high-quality reproduction of a 19th-century painting depicting slaves in the port of Gustavia. “It doesn’t necessarily have to be displayed all over the island,” explains Emilia Felicia Klause. “But in the right place and with proper context, it could help people better understand this period in the island’s history.”
Albane Harmange
