November 7, 1811 begins, in the heights of Saint-Leu, the only slave revolt that Reunion has known. “It is therefore not a revolt of hollow and violent bellies, explained the historian Prospère Eve in his introduction to the conference “The slave revolts in the Indian Ocean, in the Antilles and in South America ” , November 7, 2011. These slaves are rising in Saint-Leu after having carried out a sharp reflection on their fate. They want to no longer work for free and enjoy moments of rest. By noisily soliciting their masters, they want to indirectly push the English rulers to come out of their reserve and take the only decision that is worthwhile for them: the abolition of slavery”. The revolt movement was stopped in blood by the masters who killed about twenty slaves. Among the fifteen people sentenced to death is Elie, one of the leaders of the movement.
“No tangible element”
More than 200 years later, the debate on the precise place and date of his execution is open. The subject is not trivial. Elie, who has become the symbol of the slave revolt, is the subject of a political recovery that is very foreign to the fight he waged with his family. We know that the rebels were executed at Saint-Leu, Saint-Paul, Saint-Pierre and Saint-Denis. “But there is no list establishing the location of the towns, the dates and the names of the slaves who were killed there,” recalls historian Alexis Miranville, specialist in the history of Saint-Paul.
However, since a deliberation of the municipal council dating from 2018, the city of Saint-Paul has taken it for granted that “Elie, Paul Vincent, Zéphir, and so many others, were tried and executed on April 15, 1812, at 3 p.m. ” in the old courthouse. It’s about…
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