The official speeches delivered during the Fête de Grand-Case on July 21, 2023 certainly paid tribute to Victor Schoelcher's contribution to the abolition of slavery, but the elected representatives of the Collectivity nevertheless wanted to highlight the participation of Auguste-François Perrinon, French abolitionist deputy and first Métis governor of Martinique.
As a reminder, Victor Schoelcher, born on July 22, 1804, is at the origin of the decree of April 27, 1848, which abolishes slavery in France and in the French colonies. His intervention during the application of the decree was decisive. Militant of the abolitionist cause, Auguste-François Perrinon transforms from 1844 a property of Saint-Martin exploiting salt marshes into an experimental workshop in order to demonstrate scientifically that slavery is no longer profitable from an economic point of view in the through methods such as the coexistence of free workers and slaves, the payment of wages to all workers regardless of status, the prohibition of corporal punishment or the use of reprimands and rewards. Perrinon records his observations which will be published in 1947 in a brochure entitled “Results of experiments on slave labor”. Invited and appointed by Victor Schoelcher to the commission for the abolition of slavery, Perrinon was sent to Martinique in 1848 as general commissioner with a view to applying the abolition decree. He then became a member of the National Assembly alongside Victor Schoelcher. For Frantz Gumbs, who wants to build bridges between Paris and our territory through his function as deputy for the first constituency of Saint-Barthélemy and Saint-Martin, Victor Schoelcher's party should also be Auguste-François' party. Perrinon and calls on parliament for this recognition shared by Louis Mussington, president of the Collectivité. _VX
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