In the past decades, there’s been a huge effort to give many forgotten or unknown individuals the spotlight they deserve in every determined event, and the character we’re going to meet today is one of those amazing personalities recognized at her time but forgotten by history because she didn’t represent the model that the system wanted to praise; that is pretty much, white people or simply men (or in many cases both).
This is the story of the great Mulâtresse Solitude, a courageous woman who fought endlessly against slavery to free her people and make sure her baby would be born free. Today, she’s celebrated as one of the greatest heroines of Guadeloupe, an island in the Caribbean, but she’s still a very unknown figure to the world that needs more recognition.
Who was La Mulâtresse Solitude?
Although, as we mentioned, Solitude has become a legendary local character nowadays, there’s much about her life that is still unknown. She was born around 1772 on the island of Guadeloupe. She was the product of rape when her enslaved African woman was abused while being transported to the Americas. Her father was a white man, and since her skin was of a light hue, she was soon given the nickname of La Mulâtresse, which means female mulatto.
Since she was a little girl she realized the role skin color had in the island’s social solitude, simply because though she was a slave, she was given mostly domestic work just because her skin was light, other girls with the same conditions as her but with darker skin were simply sent to the fields where the work was more extenuating.
Solitude’s given name was actually Rosalie, and she spent her childhood and some years of her adolescence as a slave on a plantation. As we’ll see below, in 1794, slavery was abolished in France and its colonies. Now, some versions claim she escaped the plantation along with her mother when she was just eight years old, before the abolishment of slavery, changing her name to Solitude or that she abandoned the place once slavery was abolished. In any case, her mother passed when she was very young, and she joined a Maroon group where she lived during her teen years.
The Maroons were communities of African descendants in the Americas that lived far away from the cities in secluded settlements. Sometimes, they would mix with indigenous groups trying to hide from colonizers. She moved to the Maroon called La Goyave where she became an influential figure of the community and later on a great leader.
Slavery in France and its colonies
In the 18th century, France experienced a social, political, and cultural change known as the Illustration that, in the 1770s, evolved to the famous French Revolution. The ideals of the Illustration, as well as the outcome of the Revolution, migrated to the French colonies including the French Caribbean and, naturally, the island of Guadeloupe. In 1791, a slave uprising in Saint-Domingue (in what is now Haiti) forced France, three years later, to abolish once and for all slavery in all its colonies.
However, although it became law in 1802, when Napoleon rose into power, he realized that France had lost a lot of its profits and income in the sugar-producing colonies and decided to reinstate slavery in the colonies, which included the Frech Caribbean. Freed people, who had gained the status of French citizens, were once again enslaved, but not without putting some resistance.
The slave uprising
In several islands like Guadeloupe, many black soldiers who had joined the French Republican Army joined to plot against the French. Some of the most renowned leaders of the resistance were Louis Delgrès and Joseph Ignace. When the resistance started, Solitude was determined to join the fight against the French.
In early May 1802, the French troops arrived at Pointe-à-Pitre ready to enforce Napoleon’s decision to reinstate slavery. They were received with local troops. Even though she was pregnant, Solitude gathered a group of people and joined the army of Delgrès and Ignace. She was fearless, and, it’s said, she participated in all battles against the Empire. Solitude was determined and full of rage towards the colonizers, and legend has it, she was very vocal about the cause and would even act quite terrifying before prisoners.
It all changed days later when Delgrès and Ignace realized that they were outnumbered. Knowing that they had only one last chance to hurt the French troops, they devised a deadly but effective plan. They allowed the French troops to advance, but they planned on burning down all their gunpowder stores to cause greater damage to the French troops. Their attempt worked, causing the death of about four hundred French soldiers. Sadly, most of the resistance troops died in the attempt; at the end of the day, their motto was “Live free or die.”
Solitude led some of the maroons to the mountains to hide, and although they had survived that last blow, they were soon captured and trialed. All of them were sentenced to be hanged, all but Solitude who was pardoned… until her baby was born. On November 27, 1802, Solitude gave birth to her baby, who was born into slavery despite their mother’s efforts to prevent it. She was executed the very next day at the age of thirty.
Solitude’s legacy
Solitude was well praised and recognized by her peers during the resistance war; however, as soon as it was all over, she was forgotten in history. It wasn’t until the 1960s that her story emerged as one of the most valiant revolutionaries of Guadeloupe. Today, there are streets, museum exhibitions, books, songs, poems, and even musicals remembering her efforts to end slavery. A statue of Solitude in Paris was the very first to represent a black woman in the French capital. Her fight was short, and some would say futile, but her strength and resilience are the voice of thousands who shared the same experience and same impulse to fight back all over colonized countries.
Photos from: Slavery and Remembrance, Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia, and Kentake.