reconnecting

To enter the great history of slavery and colonization through the small door, through the small places that seem insignificant, those whose historical uses have even been forgotten. To use buildings and places as an archive. Sometimes psychologist, historian, archivist, numismatist, landscaper or simply passionate about history, the floor is given to these connoisseurs to "visit" the complex history of the slave trade and colonization from particular places in Nantes. These podcasts are produced by Pop Média, on an initiative of the director Guillaume Ploquin and the architect-anthropologist Rossila Goussanou.

During the period of the slave trade, several people under servile status from the West Indies or Africa were brought to France. They had an ambiguous position, since slavery was forbidden on French soil. These "colored people" became servants for the rich families of Nantes, or learned a trade (lingerie, dressmaking, cooking, wigmaking, cooperage, carpentry, etc.). In 1777, there were about 700 of them in Nantes. The Saint-Nicolas Basilica is an essential place to learn more about their lives: its archives list more than 202 baptism and marriage certificates of these "Blacks of Nantes".