#TRAVEL My Weekly Powerup | #club100 | The story of sugar estates and slavery comes alive in Musée de Villèle on La Reunion | #steemexclusive / 11 photos

The small island La Reunion is located in the Indian Ocean not far from Mauritius. The island is an overseas French Department, so French is the spoken laguage. The island has a history similar to Mauritius, which is a former French colony as well. When I was visiting the island of La Reunion in April this year, this museum was one of the places I went to see. Musée de Villèle is housed in a former colonial building located above Saint-Paul on the west coast. Domaine de Villèle tells the story about a rich family who once lived here. The manor house where Madame Desbassyns once lived, is now open to the public. On the second floor there is an exhibition that tells the story of slaves on the estate. Beside the house, there are several buildings, a beautiful garden and the ruins of the sugar mill. There are only few places on the island other than this estate that has such a large number of buildings still here: the mansion, a slave hospital and the ruins of the sugar factory.

The tour of the mansion was done with a guide. But in French and since we don’t speak French, we got a booklet written in English. With that in our hands, we walked through the rooms on the first floor. We took a walk in the garden before we went to the second floor. This floor exhibits the history connected to slavery. Both in general, but also the slaves on the etate.

Slavery was widespread as a legal way to obtain labor. This was also the case on La Reunion during the colonial period. The island was colonized by the French in 1642. At that time the island was called Ile Bourbon. From 1674 to 1764 the island was controlled by Compagnie des Indes Orientales. Different crops like coffee and sugar producing estates depended on the importation of slaves a workcorce. Up until slavery was abolished in 1848 the work was done mainly by slaves.

A board tells how the slaves were giving surnames. They got the name after the month they arrived the Cape. The exhibition has a photo for each month of the year. Not only the four I have chosen here. The Desbasyns estate was both a residence and a place to grow food and raise animals. The estate was assigned in 1698. The slaves had an overseers, who made sure they did the work they were instructed to carry out. In 1845 the majority of the workers were slaves. Madame Desbassayns organized relegious cermonies as weddings and baptisms. In this way the made sure these children were given French names.

After seing the house and the exhibion we took a walk to the ruins of what is left of the old sugar mill. Two years before the deaths of Madame Desbassayns, her granson Frédéric de Villèle, freed some of the slaves and overseers. He wanted to reliable people with skills who in the future could oversee the free workers he would have to employ in the future. In this way he was able to make sure that the plantation would continue to excist.

CC @patjewell

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U.J

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All the photoes are mine, Ulla Jensen (flickr, Instagram and facebook)

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