Nantes confronts its past with memorial to the Atlantic Slave Trade

Nantes, a city that prospered from maritime trade but for more than a century it was also France’s largest slave-trading port. Today the city is acknowledging this with one of Europe’s most significant memorials to the transatlantic slave trade.

Agnès Poras is a tour guide at The Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery: “When you come to this place you face 2,000 boards on the ground floor which takes you to a part of history, like the vessel’s names, and the counters, which are all represented here. You’ve got more than 1,700 boats names represented, so that faces you with the big investment of the port of Nantes and the traders and ship owners and to the slave trade in the 18th century.”

Across town at the city’s historical museum and castle, Château des ducs de Bretagne, holds further records of Nantes’ role in the slave trade. Inside, exhibits include plantation registers, shipping logs, and paintings that document the forced movement of people across continents. Models depict the plantations where enslaved individuals were forced to work, producing goods that fuelled European economies.

Bertrand Guillet is director of Château des ducs de Bretagne. He says: “We are here in a room within the Nantes History Museum dedicated to the Atlantic slave trade and colonial slavery, particularly in this room. We are describing a journey of a Nantes slave ship since Nantes was, in the 18th century, the leading French city specialised in the Atlantic slave trade and in the deportation of slaves from Africa to America. It was the fourth largest slave trading city in Europe, and more than 500,000 enslaved people were deported by Nantes ships during the 18th century. Nantes also has another characteristic, perhaps a little less known, which is that it was also the first city involved in the illegal slave trade in the 19th century.”

One of the most significant pieces is a 1770 watercolour of the Marie-Séraphique, a ship from Nantes that transported enslaved people. The image, drawn and signed by those involved in the trade, offers a rare contemporary record of how captives were confined below deck. Alongside it, shackles, ceramics, and personal testimonies illustrate different aspects of the trade and its impact.

Guillet continues: “Nantes developed a relationship with America very early, beginning in the 17th century, and at one point, the necessity to specialize became a notable fact for the shipowners seeking destiny in relation to the colonization of the American islands. And this specialization of the Atlantic space would ultimately allow them, thanks to an accumulation of capital, to finally outfit ships specialized for the slave trade. And this commerce truly became the foundation of Nantes’ port economy in the 18th century.”

Among the ship models on display is Le Dorade, which carried up to 150 enslaved individuals. For visitors, these displays offer a deeper understanding of the city’s past and offer lessons to be learned on societal tolerance. Marcian visited the museum with his son. Reflecting on how the city’s past can offer insights into the future he says: “This is a big question because I think they are still a little bit aware and we also have to be able to open our eyes to realize what is happening, especially with everything we see politically in France today, in Europe, in the world. People tend to turn their backs on each other a little and not want to see what is before their eyes. Unfortunately, we see a rise in racism, xenophobia. If we took more people to see this kind of thing more perhaps it would limit the phenomena, but unfortunately people tend to forget very quickly.”

As evening falls, the glass panels catch the last light of the day; their inscriptions glowing softly against the darkening sky. The names on the ground become shadows, stretching across the pathway. The Loire, which once carried ships on their journeys, now reflects the city’s efforts to acknowledge its past. The memorial stands as a reminder, not just of history, but of the ongoing fight against slavery in all its forms. Poras says: “The first object of memory was a statue in 1998 which came to celebrate the 150 years of the abolition of slavery in France was completely pulled down the first night it was set on the quay. So when you think that memory is easy, it’s an easy subject to deal with, in France it’s a big subject for many cities to say ‘do we keep the ship merchants on the street lanes?’ do we have to keep memories of names which we’re shameful of and today the policy of Nantes is to say we’re not going to take off this connection to history but we’re going to explain.”

Once a city that thrived on the trade of human lives, Nantes now seeks to preserve their memory. Through this memorial, its museum and public dialogue, it continues to confront its past – one name, one story, one reflection at a time.