During the 18th century, France reaped tremendous wealth from its West Indian colonies where slave labour kept the production costs of especially sugar low. An estimated 1.1 million Africans were shipped across the Atlantic in chains to work on the sugarcane plantations in the French Caribbean.
To France which prides itself of having introduced in 1789 the concepts of liberty, equality and universal rights, slavery presents a particularly awkward and therefore largely obscured chapter of the country’s history. Since the end of the 20th century, however, historians have begun to explore this period, and novelists and filmmakers from Martinique and Guadeloupe are increasingly making their voices heard in an effort to turn the “obscured memory” of slavery into a conscious awareness and a shared history.
In this chapter, I will examine three audiovisual productions that present the French history of slavery to a larger audience from the POV of their creators’ slave ancestors. Portraying daily life on a sugar plantation in Martinique between 1788 and 1810, with a particular focus on the plight of female slaves forced to comply with their owners’ sexual desires, Tropiques amers (Bitter Tropics, 2007) is a six-part miniseries for French television directed by Jean-Claude Barny of Martinican descent. And each in their own way, Sucre amer (Bitter Sugar, 1998) as well as 1802: L’Épopée guadeloupéenne (2004), both of them feature films directed by Guadeloupean-born Christian Lara, depict the rebellion that took place in Guadeloupe in 1802 when Napoleon sent troops to reinstate slavery after it had first been abolished in 1794. Adhering to the ideals of the French Revolution, the former slaves fought the French colonial power under the rallying cry of “Vivre libre ou mourir!”.