Jesuit Missionaries and Enslavement at the Turn of the Eighteenth Century: An Assessment from the Loyola Plantation in French Guiana
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19 avril 2021
- handle: 10670/1.v1s935
- hal: hal-04180204
- doi: 10.1163/22141332-0803P004
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info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1163/22141332-0803P004
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Mots-clés
French Guiana enslavement sugar production Catholic missions landscape archaeology equatorial agricultural system Jesuit plantationSujets proches
Frenchmen (French people)Citer ce document
Réginald Auger et al., « Jesuit Missionaries and Enslavement at the Turn of the Eighteenth Century: An Assessment from the Loyola Plantation in French Guiana », HAL-SHS : histoire, ID : 10.1163/22141332-0803P004
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Résumé
We present an overview of the archaeological research carried out on a sugar plantation operated by the Jesuits in French Guiana. The Jesuits’ production was exported to Europe to provide funds to develop their missions among Native people living in French Guiana and Amazonia. We present a brief history of the plantation and discuss the place the missionaries occupied in the colonial venture and their role in the economy of the colony. Loyola was a large and successful plantation compared with other plantations in French Guiana, and its success rested on the exploitation of enslaved labor. Recent research on the area covered by the plantation storehouse, its chapel, and the forecourt in front has allowed us to reassess our initial interpretation of the chronology and development of the plantation. In doing so, we realized that the Jesuits rigorously conformed to the architectural principles of the Enlightenment to symbolize their prestige in the colony.