Anne Pépin

Anne Pépin (1747–1837) was an Afro-French 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 not take the name of her husband herself, but nevertheless had her child take her husband's name.

She belonged to the leading figures of the signara community on Gorée Island, which played in important part of the French slave trade. Her brother had the famous '' Maison des Esclaves'' built for the family slave trade business on the island, typically constructed for a signara house with localities for the storage of slaves in the basement. She kept recalcitrant slaves punished underneath her staircase on Gorée Island.

Anne Pépin herself owned and constructed several slave trade houses of the same kind, among them a famous house built in a mixed Italo-Provence-style. As other signaras she would have participated in the slave trade, but she is also known to have traded in Gum arabic