Seamen in France and the French Empire: Heirs to the Galley Slave or Forerunners of the Social Security System?

Abstract

Duress and violence are even more deeply rooted on the seas than on land. The long history of French seamen was that of the slow decline of the galleys and of the ever insufficient and increasingly problematic separation between military conscription and the merchant navy. Marseille was the main port of registry for galley slaves; in 1630, Marseille’s arsenal fleet comprised approximately 6,000 galley slaves and Colbert organized a veritable system of recruitment in prisons in order to meet demand. 1 In exchange, he allowed galley slaves to develop a small business, both when they arrived on the quays of Marseille and in destination ports. The authorities also turned a blind eye to the galley slaves’ practice of using young boys (“passegavettes”) to help them with their business, or even to satisfy their sexual needs.KeywordsIndian OceanNineteenth CenturyEighteenth CenturySocial ProtectionMain PortThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.