Marie-Thérèse Lucidor Corbin

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Marie-Thérèse Lucidor Corbin (1749–1834) was an 18th-century French Creole activist.[1] She celebrated the abolition of slavery in the French colonies by delivering a speech and singing a hymn to coloured citizens, set to the tune of La Marseillaise.[2]

Life

Corbin's father was Andre Lucidor, a former slave from

Charenton asylum.[2]

Marie-Thérèse was arrested in November 1792, and accused of involvement in the theft of the

Garde Meuble. Claiming that the Interior Minister, Jean-Marie Roland de la Platière, and the Mayor of Paris, Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve, had instructed her to try to find the thieves, she was released. In February 1793 she petitioned the National Convention to clear her name, arguing that her association with the thieves – while successful in bringing some of them to trial – had resulted in her losing her apartment and custody of her children.[2]

After the Law of 4 February 1794 (16 pluviôse) abolished slavery in all the French colonies, Lucidor Corbin delivered an impassioned speech at the Temple of Reason at Notre-Dame:

O French people, the great day has arrived […] Liberty, Equality reign over our hemisphere […] our chains are broken forever […] O Marat, why are you not present […] and you, Ogée, free man of colors, our brother and friend, died first victim murdered by the aristocracy in our Isles […] we swear to defend Liberty, Equality and support the one and indivisible Republic.[3]

She then sang a 'hymn of the coloured citizens' to the tune of La Marseillaise:

             Free people come to this Temple throwing flowers on these heroes
             They have freed their country from the shameful irons of slavery

In February 1795 she published a long text on national education in the French colonies. The text's close familiarity with Saint-Domingue suggests others like Julien Raimond or Léger-Félicité Sonthonax may have helped her write it. She continued to appeal for public assistance, presenting herself as a refugee to claim aid, and may have continued to work as a police informer.[2]

Her daughter Marie-Constance entered the Conservatoire de Paris along with the future opera singer Alexandrine-Caroline Branchu, another mixed race student. However Marie-Constance did not achieve success as a singer, and died in 1808. Marie-Therese was admitted to the Hospice des Incurables on the Rue de Sèvres, where she died on 31 January 1834, aged 81.[2]

Works

  • Discours de la citoyenne Lucidor F. Corbin, créole, républicaine, prononcée par elle-même au Temple de la Raison, l'an 2e de la liberté. Paris: Coutubrier, [1794].
  • Hymne des citoyens de couleurs. 1794.
  • Aperçu d’une Républicaine Française sur les colonies pour y établir des éducations nationales. Fait par la Citoyenne Lucidor femme Corbin, créolle. 1795.

References

  1. ^ "Corbin, Lucidor (fl. 18th c.)". Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Through the Ages. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d e Pierre Bardin (July–August 2009). "LUCIDOR, ancien esclave, et sa fille Marie-Thérèse, à Paris". Généalogie et Histoire de la Caraïbe. 227: 5982–4. Retrieved 18 May 2021.
  3. ^ Speech of Citoyenne Lucidor Corbin, delivered at the Temple of Reason (30 Pluviôse, Year II)

External links

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