PODCAST 4. THE TROCHON HOUSE (17, Quai de la Fosse)
The "Trochon Clan", shipowners and merchants from Nantes who sailed the long seas
Guest: Joshua Pursey
Quai de la Fosse is famous for having been home to several of Nantes' slave-owning families. Such is the case of the house at number 17, built in 1742 by the merchant and shipowner Charles Trochon. Historian Joshua Pursey combines archival documents and academic writings to offer an account of the Trochon clan. Covering almost a century of their history, he looks at the family's entry into the shipowning business, the economic and social power of the Nantes merchants and the organisation of their homes. This podcast also looks at the history of the ship "L'Affriquain", fitted out by the Trochon family in 1738. The details of this expedition illustrate the life of its crew, but also the acts of resistance of the enslaved people on board.
Pour aller plus loin :
Joshua Pursey, Fortune, réseaux et domination : le clan Trochon, négociants nantais au XVIIIe siècle, Mémoire de Master, Université de Nantes, 2022.
Bernard Michon, « Nantes, port d’émigration vers les colonies antillaises de la France au XVIIIe siècle : premiers jalons d’une recherche en cours », La Normandie et les Colonies : une histoire et un patrimoine en partage, Actes du colloque du Havre (7-8 mars 2019), à paraître. Olivier Pétré-Grenouilleau, L’Argent de la traite milieu négrier, capitalisme et développement : un modèle, Flammarion, Paris, 2009 [1996].