The strange story of Furcy Madeleine
From April 5 to May 30, 2023, the Saint-Denis Droit-Lettres BU invites you to discover the exhibition at the Villèle Museum
“The strange story of Furcy Madeleine”
The slave who sued his master
In 1817, the slave Furcy, aged 30, decided to leave his master Joseph Lory. He claims to be free and engages in a long fight so that justice recognizes his condition as a man born free to an Indian mother.
During his trial, his defenders, the attorney general Louis Gilbert Boucher and the deputy of the king's prosecutor, Jacques Sully-Brunet, opposed the general commissioner of the colony, Philippe Richemont Desbassayns, third son of Henri-Paulin and Ombline Desbassayns.
Furcy lost his case at the royal court of Bourbon in December 1817 and then on appeal. After several years during which he was exiled to Mauritius by his master, he obtained an appeal by the royal court of Paris which declared in 1843 that he was a free man by birth.
In Reunion, Furcy became a symbol of the fight for freedom.
Guided tours will be organized in May.
