Historical Organization
Archives territoriales de Guyane
Archives territoriales de Guyane
Details
Organization Timeline
Disciplinary workshops institutionalize coerced labor
đź“… 3 July 1852Local order no. 398 establishes prisons and disciplinary workshops for workers sanctioned under the 13 February decree. It allowed those sentenced to perform labor and, in specified circumstances,...
Worker booklet system begins in Cayenne
📅 28 July 1852Order no. 419 defines worker booklets and their delivery in French Guiana. The booklet recorded work engagements and enabled officials to monitor workers’ movements. It was a tool of post-emancipation...
Work obligation and booklet checks extend labor surveillance
đź“… 4 August 1852Order no. 464 organizes work engagements and booklet inspections. It required people aged 14 to 60 without sufficient resources to show regular work, and imposed repeated administrative checks. For...
French Guiana creates a special immigration office
đź“… 30 December 1854A local order creates a special immigration commissioner, part of the administrative apparatus for recruiting and distributing contracted labor. After formerly enslaved people resisted plantation work...
Local order sets rules for Indian and African immigrants
đź“… 10 December 1855Order no. 698 sets local procedures for introducing Indian and African contracted workers, including the assignment of workers to employers and checks on contracts and transport. The same framework...
Sigisbert-CĂ©zard brings the first Indian labor convoy to Guiana
đź“… 9 June 1856The ship Sigisbert-CĂ©zard reaches French Guiana with Indian workers recruited from Pondicherry and Karikal. The surviving memorial register lists 822 people embarked and 801 arrivals. The names and...
RĂ©aumur convoy resumes Indian indenture migration
đź“… 18 October 1860After a four-year gap, the RĂ©aumur arrives with 550 Indian workers embarked and 534 recorded as arriving. The four-year interruption reflected the fragile finances and administration of colonial...
Parmentier convoy carries Indian workers to Guiana
📅 9 July 1861The Parmentier arrives with 533 workers embarked from Pondicherry and Karikal and 514 recorded as arriving. The voyage shows that the 1861 convention’s protections existed alongside continuing...
Nicolas-Poussin convoy reaches French Guiana
đź“… 1 December 1864The Nicolas-Poussin arrives from Pondicherry and Karikal with 277 workers embarked and 275 recorded as arriving. This later convoy shows that the indenture system persisted beyond its first arrivals...
Duguay-Trouin convoy reaches Cayenne
đź“… 10 December 1865The Duguay-Trouin arrives from Pondicherry and Karikal with 412 workers embarked and 400 recorded as arriving. The archive-based chronology notes that officials refused immediate landing and moved the...
Berryer brings the final Indian indenture convoy
đź“… 11 February 1877The Berryer arrives in French Guiana with 306 workers, the final ship in the twenty-convoy migration recorded between 1856 and 1877. More than 8,000 people crossed from India and the Caribbean to work...
The territorial authority begins a scheduled release of slave registers
📅 27 April 2020The Collectivité Territoriale de Guyane began a scheduled public release of civil records of enslaved people and marronnage declarations for 1834–1848. The schedule starts with Mapa, Oyapock, and...
CTG schedules Cayenne Island and Montsinéry records for public release
📅 11 May 2020The planned third release covers birth, marriage, and death records for enslaved people in the Cayenne Island and Montsinéry districts. These records make family relations more visible, although their...
CTG schedules Tonnégrande and Tour-de-l’Île registers for public release
📅 18 May 2020The release calendar assigns the Tonnégrande and Tour-de-l’Île registers to the week beginning 18 May. By making local records accessible, the project supports research into enslaved people’s family...
CTG schedules Cayenne city registers for public release
đź“… 25 May 2020The calendar assigns the city of Cayenne registers to the week beginning 25 May. The civil records can recover individual names and kinship ties from the archive, while requiring readers to...
CTG schedules Macouria and Kourou registers for public release
đź“… 1 June 2020The calendar assigns the Macouria and Kourou registers to the week beginning 1 June. They form part of a larger publication that includes civil-status records and marronnage notices. Making...
CTG schedules the Sinnamary, Iracoubo, and Mana registers for public release
đź“… 8 June 2020The release calendar assigns the Sinnamary, Iracoubo, and Mana records to the week beginning 8 June. Their publication extends access beyond Cayenne and coastal plantation districts, helping make...
CTG releases marronnage notices covering 1821–1848
📅 10 June 2020The territorial authority’s final scheduled release contains marronnage notices from 1821 to 1848. The notices document people who resisted enslavement by leaving plantations and communities of forced...
CTG announces a public conference on African contract workers
đź“… 13 October 2022The territorial authority announced a conference on African women and men who were brought to Guiana under labor contracts after the 1848 abolition. The public event reflects a shift in historical...