Chapter 10 · 20 December 1848
1848: abolition
On 20 December 1848, Sarda Garriga, the Republic's commissioner general sent by the provisional government, proclaimed the abolition of slavery on Bourbon, more than eight months after the decree issued in mainland France on 27 April 1848, which had been delayed by the resistance of the island's settlers.
The decree of 27 April 1848
Championed by Victor Schœlcher, it abolished slavery in all French colonies, but its application on Bourbon was held back by the landowners.
Sarda Garriga
Sent specially to the island, he enforced the decree and proclaimed abolition on 20 December 1848, still commemorated every year as Fèt Kaf (the Kaf festival, celebrating freedom).
Some 62,000 people freed
This is the number of enslaved people freed that day on the island: a major demographic and social turning point.
The story
The abolition of slavery in Réunion resulted from a succession of acts between March and December 1848. On 7 March, an order renamed Bourbon “Île de La Réunion”. On 27 April, the decree of the Second Republic abolished slavery in all French colonies. On 13 October, Commissioner General Sarda Garriga arrived to implement abolition. His order of 18 October set the date of emancipation at 20 December 1848. On that day, some 62,000 people held in slavery became legally free. Legal freedom did not immediately remove the economic and social constraints inherited from the plantation: indenture (engagisme, contract immigration) developed rapidly to meet the need for labour.
Memory today
20 December is the central date for commemorating abolition in Réunion. Made an official holiday in 1983, it is a powerful moment of identity. Local associations and institutions organise commemorative events every year.
Photo: Illustration created for the app · Illustration, not an authentic period photograph
Sources (5)
- Portail Esclavage Réunion, « Chronologie des abolitions » — https://www.portail-esclavage-reunion.fr/documentaires/abolition-de-l-esclavage/chronologie-des-abolitions/
- Gilles Gauvin, « Mouvements abolitionnistes », Portail Esclavage Réunion — https://www.portail-esclavage-reunion.fr/documentaires/abolition-de-l-esclavage/mouvements-abolitionnistes/
- Jacqueline Lee Fung Kai, « Célébrations de l'abolition de l'esclavage », Portail Esclavage Réunion — https://www.portail-esclavage-reunion.fr/documentaires/memoire-de-l-esclavage/celebrations-de-l-abolition-de-l-esclavage/
- Musée de Villèle, « Esclavage et engagisme » — https://www.musee-villele.re/fr/esclavage-et-engagisme
- Sudel Fuma, Esclaves et citoyens, le destin de 62 000 Réunionnais, Fondation pour la recherche et le développement dans l'océan Indien, 1979