Gorée Island, Senegal: The Doorway to the Transatlantic Slave Trade
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Off the coast of Dakar Senegal, a small island sits out on the sea. This island looks peaceful, with its sandy beaches and the waves lapping the shore. However, the history of the island is quite the opposite. Gorée Island happens to be the most westward territory of the African continent. Gorée, although small in size played a key role in the transatlantic slave trade in the 1800s. The French noted the significant nature of the island, and in 1800, they claimed it for their own. The French interest was solely in opportunities in the slave trade. After the close of the slave trade the island faded into the background, however, Gorée has taken up more room in the press recently as some of the realities of this island’s history have come to light. As a slave-trading hub in the Atlantic world, this island represented a grim reality for many as the last piece of their home continent that they would ever see. The place of nightmares for slaves was also the home of a number of free people. One individual who called Gorée home was Anne Pépin. Pépin was what was called a signare. This is the term that they used at the time for individuals who were of mixed African and European heritage.1 Pépin belonged to the noble class of Senegal. It is suspected that signare bloodlines were able to acquire social power because of the vital role that they played as go-betweens for the two cultures. The signare women were especially important to the economy of the island. French males that were stationed on the island took a particular interest in the women of Gorée. What was unique about the relationships between the French men and the Gorée women, compared to many other relationships in the transatlantic era, was that many of their relationships were a mutual arrangement. The men, being under the command of the French crown, were forbidden to engage in private business ventures. This meant that they were unable to be involved in the transatlantic slave trade for personal gain. However, these men’s wives were not bound by the same restrictions.2 Although it was still lust that led many to marriage, at least some of that lust was for economic gain. Pépin was one of these women, she had claimed the title as the ‘temporary’ wife, of the French commander and governor of Senegal.3 Map of Gorée Island, by Jean Baptiste Léonard Durand, Voyage au Sénégal (1802), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
