History of the Martinique

The island was colonized by France since 1635 per Pierre Belain d' Esnambuc, who dies in 1658. In 1664, repurchased by the Company of the Western Indies in 1664, the island becomes colony of the kingdom in 1674 and Colbert institutes the draft of the blacks.

Colony of the Crown in 1783, it was very coveted by the English who settled there in 1794, after the first convention of the abolition of slavery.

The first European colonists arrived about the middle of the XVIIe century and quickly developed the culture of the cane with sugar while resorting to the African workforce.

The economic system of the Dwellings, founded on the farm of the work of the slaves in the sugar plantations, will remain until the official abolition of slavery, April 27, 1848, by the Republic.

In 1802, Napoleon Bonaparte restores slavery giving rise to ceaseless wars between English and French. France gains and the abolition of slavery is proclaimed on the initiative of Victor SCHOELCHER, more than 70.000 slaves are released.

History of the Martinique.

The black Code governed the life of the slaves in the dwellings. It defined in a strict way and specifies the relations between the Rulers and their slaves, considered as "movable property". The black Code fixed also the conditions of stamping from the slaves.

Black Code.