Saint Barthélemy and its forgotten past

At the heart of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean, a very small exclusive luxury island by the name of Saint-Barthélemy carries with it a forgotten past. Slavery was a historical reality; however, a collective narrative that slavery never existed on the island has persisted until recent efforts in the 21st century to revive its memory have been undertaken. This article aims at exposing how this historical silence around slavery was produced and maintained.

In 1648, the French colonised the island of Saint-Barthélemy, arriving with a few slaves from the neighbouring island of Saint Christophe (present-day Saint Kitts), chasing away the Indigenous populations, characterised by their impermanence, who used the island as a relay station when resisting European colonisation. Due to its arid climate, Saint Barthélemy lacked the soil necessary for large-scale plantations and therefore did not develop a sugarcane economy like its neighbouring islands (1). Although the slave experience on the island has been described as less harsh than the brutality experienced on large-scale plantations, enslaved individuals were stripped of their freedom, kidnapped from their home lands in West Africa, sold as a commodity, separated from their families, and punished with severe violence. 

Saint Barthélemy gradually shifted from a small, mostly white settler colony into a society that relied more heavily on enslaved labour, especially during the island’s Swedish period from 1784 to 1878. The Swedish West India Company obtained a license to participate in the transatlantic slave trade, and records show that ships travelled from West Africa to the Swedish colony with slaves. A Swedish Black Code was created in 1787. By the island’s peak economic prosperity around 1812, during the Napoleonic Wars, Black inhabitants (both enslaved and free) actually formed the majority, reflecting how central they were to the island’s economy. At the same time, resistance never disappeared, with revolts in 1736 and 1806 showing ongoing opposition to slavery. There was also a presence of free Black people, who worked as craftsmen, traders, and sometimes even slave owners, highlighting a more complex social structure (1).

On October 9, 1847, Marie-Françoise, called Mélanie, was the 523^rd slave to be freed on Saint Barthélemy (2). In 1878, France bought the island back from the Swedish monarchy. The island’s locals survived through poverty until the drastic changes that occurred with Rémy de Haenen landing the first flight in the 1940s, David Rockerfeller buying property in the 1950s, and tourism picking up at a drastic speed in the 1960s and 70s to become one of the exclusive luxury vacation destinations on the planet, especially as a place for wealthy US citizens to establish a secondary home. Today, the island’s population is predominantly white, consisting of the Saint-Barths, descendants of the settler families; the immigrants who come from Europe to work; and the wealthy clientele (3). Celebrities such as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, actor Leonardo DiCaprio, actress Nathalie Portman, business oligarch Roman Abramovich and many more are known to dock their yachts near Saint Barthélemy around the New Year’s festivities.

The exodus of the Black population that occurred after the abolition of slavery was instrumentalised for economic benefit by promoting the island’s population as white, falsely implying that slavery had never existed. This phenomenon must be considered with parallel developments in the United States at the time, notably segregation. US citizens found an exotic destination with its beautiful beaches and views, lush fauna and flora, but without the Afro-Caribbean population. Saint Barthélemy’s offered an exotic experience distinct from Caribbean culture. This invented exotism, as described by Cousin & Chauvin (2013), offered tourists and investors an exotism familiar to the world, inspired by other tourist destinations but singular to Saint Barthélemy, with high-end hospitality standards (3). The island’s culture conserves a minimal aspect of Afro-Caribbean heritage, with Creole food being scarce, Black representation rare, and Black memory invisible.

The island showcases signs of selective remembrance, as the public place is barely dotted by markers that attest to the slave experience on the island. The island’s territorial museum, Le Brigantin, addresses the topic in a few sentences spread out throughout the different time periods: prehistoric period, pre-Columbian, post-Columbian, Swedish period, and contemporary period. Slavery is never addressed in its own right and without much detail (4).

The archives of Saint Barthélemy have been repeatedly displaced and damaged. Moved to Guadeloupe in 1932, they were partly destroyed in a 1955 fire and suffered from poor storage conditions. In the 1960s, a large set of overlooked court records was rediscovered by Swedish journalists, who tried organising the archive but ended up creating more confusion. Due to inadequate preservation and unrest in Guadeloupe, the collection was transferred to France in the early 1970s, with the promise of eventual return (5). Only in the 2010s did Swedish historian Fredrik Thomasson undertake a digitalisation project to make the material readable and accessible, attesting to Sweden’s lack of engagement with its colonial archive. Thanks to Thomasson’s efforts, more research has been undertaken on the subject in Sweden; however, French literature remains silent. Moreover, Saint Barthélemy’s story remains excluded from world history books on slavery.

Jérôme Montoya, who retraced the island’s genealogy in his book Saint Barthélemy: généalogie et histoire d’une île, has demonstrated that some descendants of enslaved people still live on the island today (6). The author has spoken of a fear and taboo surrounding this historical reality, with locals questioning the legitimacy of his research. Challenging the collective narrative that persisted for so long of Saint Barthélemy as a ‘white island’ which never had slaves simultaneously calls into question local claims of legitimacy and belonging, making this a sensitive and avoided debate. Due to the lack of traces in the public space, combined with the taboo attached to the subject, inhabitants still believe that slavery never existed on the island. Some of the justifications are the arid climate or the absence of a slave cemetery.

2023 marked the first official commemoration ceremony of the abolition of slavery (2). Before discussing the ritual itself, it is important to note that until 2012, the island commemorated the wrong abolition date. As Saint-Barthélemy was administratively part of Guadeloupe before 2007, it followed Guadeloupe’s commemorative calendar. It was only in 2011 that Richard Lédée, a local committed to preserving the island’s historical memory, initiated the correction of the date, which was officially recognised in 2012. The first ceremony in 2023 combined music, historical readings, and speeches by local officials and cultural figures. In 2024, the commemoration deepened with the inauguration of a memorial plaque at Fort Gustav III, whose text was written by eighth-grade students from Collège Mireille-Choisy, accompanied by readings of poems and songs. The event also included a public roundtable with historians and heritage professionals, as well as a screening of a documentary on the island’s history of slavery. In contrast, the 2025 ceremony was cancelled due to a cyclone warning, prompting criticism for not postponing it. 

The lack of traces in the public space attests to a collective amnesia regarding slavery. Research has paid little attention to the processes through which this silence was produced and maintained on the island of Saint-Barthélemy. Without addressing this question, it is impossible to determine effective ways to remember the slave past of Saint-Barthélemy.

About the author

Emilia Felicia Klause is pursuing a Master’s in Arts & Heritage: Management, Policy and Education at Maastricht University. Her research explores memorialization in public spaces, with a particular focus on the Caribbean. Emilia is currently researching the French island of Saint Barthélemy and its silence around slavery.

References

1. Lavoie, Y., Fick, C., & Mayer, F.-M. (1995). A particular study of slavery in the Caribbean island of Saint Barthélemy: 1648–1846. Caribbean Studies, 28(2), 369–403. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25613312.
2. Journal de Saint-Barth. (2023, October 16). L’abolition de l’esclavage enfin commémorée. Retrieved February 2026, from https://www.journaldesaintbarth.com/actualites/patrimoine/labolition-de-lesclavage-enfin-commemoree-202310161803.html.
3. Cousin, B., & Chauvin, S. (2013). Islanders, immigrants and millionaires: The dynamics of upper class segregation in St. Barts, French West Indies. In I. Hay (Ed.), Geographies of the super rich (pp. 186–200). Edward Elgar Publishing. http://sebastienchauvin.org/wp-content/uploads/Cousin_Chauvin2013_Islanders_immigrants_millionnaires.pdf.
4. Musées Territoriaux de Saint-Barthélemy. (n.d.). Brigantin index. Retrieved February 2026, from https://www.museesstbarth.com/en/page/brigantin-index.
5. Thomasson, F. (2020). The Caribbean scorpion: The Saint Barthelemy archive and Swedish colonial amnesia. Small Axe, 24(62), 53–56.
6. Montoya, J. (2024). Saint-Barthélemy, histoire et généalogie d’une île. Librinova.

Images

Slavery Abolition Plaque in Saint Barthélemy, courtesy of the author

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