In 1863, 10 enslaved African(s) were “liberated” in a state-run scheme usually resulting in involuntary indentures, conscription, or re-enslavement. Under the jurisdiction of 12, Case ID LA-E-865 occurred via the Rachat et Engagement, Zanzibar
| RegID | LA-E-865 |
|---|---|
| Case Name | La Providence |
| Year | 1863 |
| Government Department | Ministère de la Marine et des Colonies, Republique Française |
| Court | Rachat et Engagement, Zanzibar |
| Trial Outcome | Purchased |
| Enslaved Total | 10 |
| Liberated Africans Total | 10 |
| Registered Total | 10 |
| Notes | Armand-Joseph Fava claimed the mission's most important work centered around such children who came to the mission… some arrived after ransoming at the slave market, while others came to the missions through a transactions such as debt payment or were gathered from the streets after having been abandoned. These totaled sixteen in August 1862... All had been slaves before coming to the mission, and four, he reported, had been stolen from their parents near Lake Nyanza (today Lake Victoria). Twenty-six children lived at the mission when the Spiritains arrived in June 1863. Kollman noted that the precise number of children in those early days is unclear. Some sources say 14, which jumped to 26 and then others give higher numbers. Two days after the arrival of the Spiritains, Henri Jablonski, a French consular official sent La Providence eight young African boys. These were taken from a French ship carrying so-called contracted laborers from eastern Africa to Réunion, which at this time were in violation of French laws. Jablonski's handover of those freed at sea initiated a practice whereby the now-Spiritain mission received those emancipated by Europeans. That number expanded dramatically beginning in the late 1860s when British abolitionist zeal led to frequent seizures of slaves at sea. The children of the mission were used to build the church. Their reports to funding agencies gave names and personal details, depicting how their young lives had been interrupted due to seizure by slave traders. Through ransoming and, to a lesser extent, gathering the abandoned, the number of children at the mission climbed quickly: 52 by late 1864, 60 by early 1865, 128 by the end of 1866, 162 by August 1867. There were 172 children at the mission's orphanages in December 1869. |
| Sources | Paul V. Kollman, The Evangelization of Slaves and Catholic Origins in Eastern Africa (New York: Orbis Books, 2005), 88-97. |
| Cite as |
| X Capture | |
|---|---|
| Y Capture | |
| Ship Status | Unknown |
| Date of departure from a place or port in Africa generally following the purchase of enslaved people. Include YYYY-MM-DD, if known. | |
| Region of departure from Africa. Required entry. For more information about the geographical hierarchy used in this digital resource, please refer to AfricanRegions.org. | East Africa (unspecified) |
| Place or port of departure from Africa, if known. A controlled vocabulary for place names are associated with geographic coordinates using Google Maps Global Mercator EPSG:900913. See https://epsg.io/transform#s_srs=4326&t_srs=900913&x=NaN&y=NaN | |
| Capture date at sea or on land, if known. Date of the sentence. Include YYYY-MM-DD, if known. | 1863-06-13 |
| Location | |
| Navy | |
| Ship | |
| Captain | |
| Supporting Ships | |
| Sentence Date | |
| Date of arrival to the place where the trial, purchase, or asylum occurred, resulting in "liberation" and indenture. Includes YYYY-MM-DD, if known. | |
| Region of arrival around the world. Required field. For more information about the geographical hierarchy used in this digital resource, please refer to AfricanRegions.org. Other regions outside of Africa include, Western Europe, East Coast of North America, etc. | East Coast of Africa |
| Place or port of arrival around the world. Required field. A controlled vocabulary for place names are associated with geographic coordinates using Google Maps Global Mercator EPSG:900913. See https://epsg.io/transform#s_srs=4326&t_srs=900913&x=NaN&y=NaN | Zanzibar |