Élie

Biography

Élie was an enslaved Creole, a blacksmith on Célestin Hibon's plantation in the Saint-Leu district. He was one of the main actors in the revolt that broke out from 5 to 8 November 1811: with Gilles, a slave driver (commandeur) on the plantation of the widow Henry Hibon, he led the insurgents towards the plantations and took part in freeing slaves in chains. In the interrogation of another insurgent, Gilles was named as the “chief of everything” and Élie as second in command.

Arrested after the uprising failed, Élie was tried with 144 other defendants by the Special Court sitting in Saint-Denis. The ruling of 7 March 1812 sentenced him to death. He was executed in April 1812, but the date and place of his execution are debated: the town of Saint-Paul holds that it took place on 15 April 1812, on what is now the Jardin de la Liberté, while other historians consider that no document allows them to be established.

His name is not an invention of tradition: it appears in the trial records. He is now at the heart of the memory of the revolt.

Contribution

One of the two leaders of the Saint-Leu slave revolt (November 1811), sentenced to death by the ruling of 7 March 1812.

Legacy

A central figure in commemorations of the revolt: a monument in Saint-Leu unveiled in 2011, a sculpture by Nelson Boyer in Saint-Paul in 2012, and an annual commemoration organised by the Comité Élie.