An “
exceptional
”
woman
: Anne Hidalgo inaugurated on Saturday September 26 a garden in homage to a historical heroine of the slave resistance, Solitude.
It is "
an important moment, because it inscribes the name of a woman who, by her courage and her commitment to justice and dignity, paved the way with others towards a definitive abolition of slavery. in France,
”declared the socialist mayor in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, alongside former Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, president of the Foundation for the memory of slavery.
The Solitude garden is located on the lawns north of the Place du Général Catroux.
A statue is to be erected there in the future.
"
Solitude is the first black woman represented for herself and for her action in the Parisian public space,
" Jacques Martial, deputy mayor of Paris in charge of overseas, noted to AFP.
“
Defender of the values of the Republic, committed woman, she fought for the freedom of all, against the reestablishment of slavery in Guadeloupe.
Fight that she paid with her life,
”he added.
"
Solitude is a historical heroine of the resistance of the slaves of Guadeloupe (...), born around 1772
" and "
daughter of an African slave and a white sailor
", specifies the City of Paris in a press release.
Executed by hanging
In May 1802, a French expedition landed in Guadeloupe, on the orders of Bonaparte, to re-establish slavery abolished in 1794. Faced with the French troops, the resistance was organized, supported by the former slaves among whom many women, including Solitude.
She, pregnant, joined the fighting before being arrested and sentenced to death.
On November 29, 1802, the day after her childbirth, she was executed by hanging.
Since this summer, several demonstrations have taken place to denounce France's colonial past and to dismantle several statues including those of Joséphine de Beauharnais and Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc, after those of Victor Schoelcher in Martinique.