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Signare
Signares were the Mulatto French-African women of the island of Gorée and the city of Saint-Louis in French Senegal during the 18th and 19th centuries. These women of color managed to gain some individual assets, status, and power in the hierarchies of the Atlantic Slave Trade. There was a Portuguese equivalent, referred to as ''Nhara'', a name for Luso-African businesswomen who played an important part as business agents through their connections with both Portuguese and African populations. There was also an English language equivalent of women of mixed African and British- or American descent with the same position, such as Fenda Lawrence, Betsy Heard, Mary Faber and Elizabeth Frazer Skelton. Social and economic role Signares commonly had power in networks of trade and wealth within the limitations of slavery. The influence held by these women led to changes in gender roles in the family structure archetype. Some owned masses of land as well as slaves. European me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anne Pépin
Anne Pépin (1747–1837) was an Afro-French Signare, signara. She belonged to the more famous of the so-called signare on the island Gorée in French Senegal, and was known for her relationship with the then governor Stanislas de Boufflers. She was a leading person in the signare community and one of their most known historical representatives. Life Anne Pépin was the daughter of the signara Catherine Baudet and the Frenchman Jean Pépin, surgeon of the French East Indies Companie, and the sister of Jean Pepin and the trader Nicolas Pepin. Her brother Nicolas was a leading figure of the island and often as the spokesperson of Gorée in their dealings with the French authorities. It is noted that while Nicolas was literate, Anne was not, albeit her belonged to a very privileged class. She married the Frenchman Bernard Dupuy, with whom she had the son Renée Dupy in 1774; her spouse left the island during the yellow fever outbreak in 1779. As was the custom in Gorée, she did n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gorée
(; "Gorée Island"; Wolof: Beer Dun) is one of the 19 (i.e. districts) of the city of Dakar, Senegal. It is an island located at sea from the main harbour of Dakar (), famous as a destination for people interested in the Atlantic slave trade although its actual role in the history of the slave trade is the subject of dispute. Its population as of the 2013 census was 1,680 inhabitants, giving a density of , which is only half the average density of the city of Dakar. Gorée is both the smallest and the least populated of the 19 of Dakar. Other important centres for the slave trade from Senegal were further north, at Saint-Louis, Senegal, or to the south in the Gambia, at the mouths of major rivers for trade.''Les Guides Bleus: Afrique de l'Ouest'' (1958 ed.), p. 123 It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and was one of the first 12 locations in the world to be designated as such in 1978. The name is a corruption of its original Dutch name , meaning "good roadstead". History ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anna Colas Pépin
Anna Colas Pépin or ''Anne-Nicolas "Annacolas" Pépin'' (1787–1872), was a Euro-African ''signare'' businesswoman.Lorelle Semley, To be Free and French: Citizenship in France's Atlantic Empire' She belongs to the most famous examples of the signares of Gorée, but has often been confused with her paternal aunt Anne Pépin. She was the daughter of Nicolas Pépin (1744–1815) and Marie-Thérèse Picard (d. 1790), married François de Saint-Jean and became the mother of Mary de Saint Jean (1815–1853), wife of the first Senegalese member of the French Parliament, Barthélémy Durand Valantin (1806–1864): the famous painting made by Édouard Auguste Nousveaux could depict either Anna Colas Pépin or her daughter. Pépin was described as a leading and influential member of the Signare community, and invested in land and buildings on Gorée in cooperation with the French authorities. As a leading member of the local elite, she famously received François d'Orléans, Prince of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plaçage
Plaçage was a recognized extralegal system in French and Spanish slave colonies of North America (including the Caribbean) by which ethnic European men entered into civil unions with non-Europeans of African, Native American and mixed-race descent. The term comes from the French ''placer'' meaning "to place with". The women were not legally recognized as wives but were known as ''placées''; their relationships were recognized among the free people of color as ''mariages de la main gauche'' or left-handed marriages. They became institutionalized with contracts or negotiations that settled property on the woman and her children and, in some cases, gave them freedom if they were enslaved. The system flourished throughout the French and Spanish colonial periods, reaching its zenith during the latter, between 1769 and 1803. It was widely practiced in New Orleans, where planter society had created enough wealth to support the system. It also took place in the Latin-influenced cities ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victoria Albis
Victoria Albis (d. ''after'' 1777), was a Senegalese signara. Gorée: the island and the Historical Museum. Abdoulaye Camara, Institut fondamental d'Afrique noire Cheikh Anta Diop, Joseph-Roger de Benoist, Musée historique du Sénégal.IFAN-Cheikh Anta Diop, 1993 She belonged to the most famous of the signaras on the island of Gorée in French Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤠(Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤠ðž .... She was one of the most powerful business people in contemporary Senegal. The present Henriette-Bathily Women's Museum was built by her. Notes Sources * Gorée: the island and the Historical Museum. Abdoulaye Camara, Institut fondamental d'Afrique noire Cheikh Anta Diop, Joseph-Roger de Benoist, Musée historique du Sénégal.IFAN-Cheikh Anta Diop, 1993 * Globalizing the Postc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cassare
''Cassare'' or ''calissare'' (from Portuguese ''casar'', "to marry") was the term applied to the marriage alliances, largely in West Africa, set up between European and African slave traders; the "husband" was European and the wife/concubine African. This was not marriage under Christian auspices, although there might be an African ceremony; there were few clerics in equatorial Africa, and the "wives" could not marry since they had not been baptized. Male monogamy was not expected. As such, concubinage is a more accurate term. The multinational Quaker slave trader and polygamist, Zephaniah Kingsley purchased the Wolof princess, Anna Kingsley, who had earlier been enslaved and sold in Cuba, after being captured in modern-day Senegal. ''Cassare'' created political and economic bonds. The name is European, and reflects similar relationships of Portuguese men, who were the first explorers of the west African coast. But it antedated European contact; selling a daughter, if not for cash ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anne Rossignol
Anne Rossignol (1730–1810), was a famous ''signare'' businesswoman and slave trader.Stewart R. King: Blue Coat Or Powdered Wig: Free People of Color in Pre-revolutionary Saint Domingue' Born on Gorée, she emigrated to Saint-Domingue in 1775, where she became one of the three richest free coloured businesswomen in the colony, alongside Zabeau Bellanton in Cap-Francais and Jeanne-Genevieve Deslandes in Port-au-Prince. She emigrated to Charleston, South Carolina during the Haitian Revolution, and has been called the first free African to have emigrated voluntarily and freely to USA. Life Anne Rossignol was born as the daughter of the Frenchman Claude Rossignol and the African ''signare'' Madeleine-Francoise of Gorée. She accompanied her father and his legal French wife to France as a child in 1736. In the documents, she was referred to as her father's natural mulatto daughter. Gorée She returned from France to Gorée on an unknown date. By birth she belonged to the privileged Afr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crispina Peres
Crispina Peres (c. 1615 – after 1670) was an African " Senhora" slave trader, natural from Geba, nowadays Guinea-Bissau. Crispina Peres belonged to a lineage of African women traders, who operated in some of the main ports of the West African region, such as Guinguim, Farim, Cacheu and Geba. She actively participated in trade networks connected to regional and international routes. Crispina's main business was exchanging products from European traders for human beings. Portuguese and local traders sold these people to different parts of the Americas and Portugal. Operating her business from Cacheu, Crispina Peres was intrinsically connected to the slave trade and the Atlantic World between 1640 and 1668. Etymology Crispina Peres is a Christian baptismal name given by her parents when she was baptized in Geba. She inherited her last name from her father, Rodrigo Peres Baltazar, a native of Terceira Island. Life Crispina Peres was born in c.1615, in Geba. She was the daug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morganatic Marriage
Morganatic marriage, sometimes called a left-handed marriage, is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which in the context of royalty or other inherited title prevents the principal's position or privileges being passed to the spouse, or any children born of the marriage. The concept is most prevalent in German-speaking territories and countries most influenced by the customs of the German-speaking realms. Generally, this is a marriage between a man of high birth (such as from a reigning, deposed or mediatised dynasty) and a woman of lesser status (such as a daughter of a low-ranked noble family or a commoner).Webster's Online Dictionary . Retrieved 2008-07-10. Diesbach, Ghislain de. ''S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lançados
The ''lançados'' (literally, ''the thrown out ones'' Pardue 2015: p. 42 or ''the cast out ones'') were settlers and adventurers of Portuguese origin in Senegambia, Cabo Verde, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and other areas on the coast of West Africa. Many were Jews—often New Christians—escaping persecution from the Portuguese Inquisition. ''Lançados'' often took African wives from local ruling families, securing protection and advantageous trading ties. They established clandestine trading networks in weaponry, spices, and slaves. This black market angered the Portuguese Crown by disrupting its ability to collect taxes. Although never large in numbers, mixed-race children born to the ''lançados'' and their African wives and concubines served as crucial intermediaries between Europeans and native Africans. These mixed-race people wielded significant power in the early development of port economies in Bissau, Cacheu, and surrounding areas. The ''lançados'' originated the Portuguese-b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elizabeth Frazer Skelton
Elizabeth Frazer Skelton also called "Mammy Skelton" (1800–1855) was a Euro-African slave trader.Emmanuel Kwaku Akyeampong, Dictionary of African Biography, Volym 1–6' Life She was the daughter of the slave trader John Frazer of Scotland (1769-1813) and the African woman Phenda. She had one brother, James, and four sisters, Margaret, Mary Ann and Eleanor.Jacqueline Knörr, Christoph Kohl: The Upper Guinea Coast in Global Perspective' Her father had emigrated to Liberia in 1797, but was banished because he engaged in slavery. Her mother Phenda was the widow of a British slave trader, and managed a slave trade business in African Bangalan, while Elizabeth's father managed the ship exporting the enslaved people to Charleston in South Carolina and (after 1807) to Spanish East Florida, where he also owned plantations managed by slave labor. After the death of her father, his widow and children inherited the slave trade business in Africa - however, his property in Britain and in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Faber (slave Trader)
Mary Faber, also called Mary Faber de Sanger, (born c. 1798, Freetown, Guinea-Conakry – died after 1857), was an African slave-trader. From the 1830s until 1852, she was a dominant figure of the Atlantic slave trade from Guinea, and known for her conflict with the British Royal Navy Anti-Slave Squadron. Life Mary Faber was born in Freetown, the daughter of Nova Scotian settlers. In 1816, she married an American shipowner, Paul Faber (d. 1851), who in 1809 had established himself as a slave trader in the Conakry region. Her husband established the business base in Sangha at the Rio Pongo River, where the couple had a "slave factory" (slave fortress). This was a slave fortress, in a balance of power with a number of other slave merchants who had slaves in the same region. Her husband was responsible for the slave ship that transported slaves to Cuba, while Mary Faber was responsible for the operations of the Rio Pongo. As her her husband was likely almost constantly absent, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
