Relics from 1810?

The Powder Mills Badges

Radhakrishna Ramasawmy

Following a stint of volunteer work with the Dutch archaeological team excavating at the Fort Frederik Hendrik in 1997 and 1999, Van Lanza (see tribute at the end of this article) and the author of this study went on to explore the possible route taken by the British army in 1810 after their landing at Mapou Bay. It was our opinion that such a mass of soldiers marching would leave a trail of musket balls, coins and other relics normally associated with an army on the move. The obvious spot to search was the Powder Mills at Pamplemousses, the site chosen for a halt, on the second day of the land campaign (30th Nov. 1810). A crucial inspiration came from a painting by R.Temple that shows various elements of the invading army resting outside the walls of the mills. A number of copper badge-like artifacts were recovered, lying near the surface or in the shallow topsoil, and these along with two other similar specimens found at Black River and the Fort F. Hendrik form the basis of this study.

The sites

Three sites are discussed in the study. They are the Powder Mills, Fort Frederik Hendrik and Batterie L’Harmonie. The map (Fig. 1) shows their locations together with the demarcations of the districts of the island.

The Powder Mills at Pamplemousses was established around 1776, during the French period, on the premises of the former iron works or forges. The previous gunpowder manufacturing plant at Baie aux Tortues was considered unsuitable and dangerous following several deadly explosions and also on account of its exposed location near the shore. The new factory employed a large workforce of government slaves and its overall administration and jurisdiction fell under the Artillery (direction de l’artillerie). In 1810 during the British invasion the bulk of the English army halted at the mills on their march to the town and harbor of Port Louis. A well-known painting by Robert Temple, a private in the invading army, depicts the scene (see fig. 2) and provides a valuable snapshot of the site and its surroundings. Today the prominent tower (now a declared National Monument) and a substantial part of the enclosure walls still stand along with several stone buildings that were added later. Shortly after the surrender in 1810 the production of gunpowder ceased and the building complex was transformed and expanded successively into a state prison, asylum, hospital and even courthouse while still retaining its original appellation: Powder Mills Asylum, Powder Mills Hospital etc.

The open rolling plains in the foreground that are depicted in the Temple painting are now wooded terrain. The two rows of huts that are shown in front of the walls were in fact the slave camp or camp des noirswhich also appears, in a different configuration, on a French map (fig. 3) of the factory dated around 1785. We conducted most of our search in the woods surrounding the walls and the distribution of the finds in relation to the camp des noirs will be discussed later in the article.

Fort Frederik Hendrik at Grand Port (the South East harbor or Port Bourbon as it was sometimes called) hardly requires introduction. This spot was chosen by the Dutch in 1638 for their fort and it remained the principal focus of their presence until 1710. The ruins standing today at the site are in fact buildings constructed around 1753 by the French which served as military and Government administrative facilities. They fell into gradual disuse following the emergence of neighboring Mahebourg as an administrative center serving the South East harbor. This cradle of Mauritian history is an archaeological site par excellence and has national heritage status. One artifact included in this study was found during an archaeological led campaign by Dr Pieter Floore. L’Harmonie battery was a defensive gun position on the west coast in the district of Black River and guarded the south point of the Black River bay. Built during the French period it mounted five 24-pounders and one mortar in 1810. A Martello tower was built much later around 1831. The one item from this site was found lying close to the surface during a search survey by Van Lanza.

Thirteen of the fifteen badge-like artifacts that are dealt in this study were found in the wooded area outside the walls of the Powder Mills at Pamplemousses. The two others were unearthed at the site of Fort Frederik Hendrik at Grand Port and L’Harmonie Battery, Riviere Noire as mentioned above. The similar characteristics shared by the Powder Mills finds with the two geographically separated others constitute important test cases especially as these similarities are not merely physical but probably period linked as well, hence their inclusion in this study.

The finds have been grouped into three types: A, B and C (see figs. 4, 5 and 6 which are composite assemblages of individual photographs of the artifacts. Scales shown are approximate.). Items classified under A are identical in all aspects except the numbers stamped. In the B category the lettering on one example differs but physical traits are identical. Those under C show only rough physical similitude and have been grouped together for ease of study. Common traits shared between the items within groups A andB points to some sort of organization involved in their manufacture. They cannot for example be some form of fancy dress accessories or ornaments made by individuals for personal wear but rather standardized items for use within well-defined groups or displayed on similar equipment .All are characterized by a very utilitarian appearance with the letters and numbers stamped being crucial elements in identifying their purpose and eventually who wore them if they prove to be badges.

Description: Type A

All the five items in this category were found at the Powder Mills and at this stage it is too early to say if this type is unique to this site or is present elsewhere. Despite their crude appearance they are in effect the most elaborately constructed among the three types, being assembled out of three separate constituent parts: a central plate with the letter ‘A’ and numbers punched and two shanks firmly pressed on opposite sides. Clearly the two shanks were some sort of attachment contraption, much like the ones found on buttons. A careful examination of this feature (see fig. 7) reveals a smoothed out cross-section as would be expected in a button shank since this would not cut through the thread stitching it to a cloth. One can argue that these shanks served as holes for fixing the plate to say a wooden panel (door, drawer, cart etc.) with a nail or screw; however this is unlikely as mere holes drilled in the plate would have served the same purpose more effectively, with the added benefit of the plate being flushed with the background material. Furthermore the four edges of the plate are clipped or scalloped, apparently to prevent injury. It is therefore quite probable these objects were in some way sewn to clothing or uniform and hence justify the use of the term ‘badges’ in the title of this study.

The metal used on all fifteen items is copper or copper alloy and when found they had a thin layer of compacted earth adhering to a stable patina that has ensured the artifact’s good state of preservation. The letter ‘A’ and numbers are punched onto the metal rather than engraved – the imprints are visible on the reverse of the thin plate. Individual number tools rather than die stamps were probably used to hammer the numbers onto the plates as they are misaligned. Dimensions and shape among the five items vary slightly indicating hand made rather than machine fashioned products. The shanks betray this characteristic clearly and despite all these flaws a fair amount of skill must have been involved in their making.

Description: Type B

The six octagonal shaped items that are grouped in this category, all found at the Powder Mills except for one (GEN.171), shows a simpler mode of manufacture than type A : a sheet of copper or copper alloy chiseled into the desired shape, a hole drilled on top and the letters and numbers punched with appropriate tools. Misalignment of the letters and numbers as with type A specimens indicates once again the use of individual punch tools rather than die stamps. Indeed on two of the items (ART.67 and ART.121) horizontal guide lines are faintly visible, clearly attempts to align the letters and numbers. A comparative study of the number ‘7’ imprints on ART.67 and GEN.171 specimens (Fig.8) reveals uncanny physical similitudes right up to the imperfections caused by tool defects.

This is significant as GEN.171 was discovered at Black River and ART. 67 at Pamplemousses and since thesame tool was without doubt involved in the manufacture of both specimens it can therefore be surmised that a form of central agency or organization was behind the issue of these objects. Of particular interest also is the presence of the copper wire loop in GEN.171, a proof that this item was not meant to be fixed to a panel but perhaps worn or suspended. The clipped edges, also present in type A, reinforce the idea that they were worn – a simpler square plate would be uncomfortable and could cause injury to the wearer.

Below the numbers on all six objects small circular hollows have been gouged out and pin marks are present on the upper and lower rims of these circles (see inset Fig.5). The purpose of this feature is not clear. Did this serve as an attachment recess for a clasp? Were these stamps of a hallmark or rough emblems? Or are they marks from the tool utilized to gouge out the hollow? Unraveling this mystery may help in identifying the purpose of the artifacts. In any case they are the one common feature (common denominator?) throughout in type B.

Description: Type C

The four items grouped here form the most disparate collection of the three types. Except for L67 which was unearthed at Fort Frederik Henrik, the three others found at Pamplemousses are rather crudely made. The only common feature among three of the four is the stamped or engravedfleur-de-lis motif. The presence of the holes on all four is also significant – whether they were intended for attaching suspension cords or serve as fixation points is yet to be determined. The half disk specimen shows a clear chiseled mark along the cut, perhaps a deliberate move at permanently ending its use, or an attempt at preventing its possible reuse.

L67 is unique among the whole collection since it has numbers (what appears to be 680 and the fleur-de-lis) punched on the reverse. It is not clear if this is a case of reutilization or standard pattern for this particular specimen in which case it would belong to a different category altogether. Only the finding of another specimen with this characteristic could settle the matter. L67 also shows parallel guide lines inscribed, without doubt a method of ensuring perfect alignment of the numbers punched.

The one with ‘44’ etched on its face is so rudimentary in its fabrication that it may be a replacement copy; the original standard issued one lost by whoever had to wear it or had custody of it.

Interpretation and possibilities

These artifacts were a source of puzzlement when they were unearthed. They resembled tags of some sort on account of the holes and inscriptions; key tags for example. They could also be merchandise tags that would have been used to seal a crate or bale of trade material. Specimens under type A do not appear to belong to these various possibilities listed above due to their construction – this category of objects were most probably sewn to elements of clothing rather than attached to bales or boxes as we have shown earlier. All of them also lack the presence of a manufacturer’s logo or hallmark as would be expected with trade merchandise. If some of the artifacts were indeed merchandise tags or labels we do not expect that the registers of relevant trade transactions to have survived; in any case which manufacturers do we look for and for which period?

The fleur-de-lis motif on three type C items probably indicates French royal property, which for the Isle of France brackets the years 1767 to 1790. Significantly enough all the artifacts were found in proximity of buildings that have a French period connection. On the other hand it should be pointed out that all three sites have also experienced a later British presence and therefore the artifacts could also belong to the post-French era, which is 1810 onwards. The extended occupation period of these three sites thus renders the dating of the artifacts quite risky and the task of interpretation and identification rather daunting on account of the absence of clear well-defined contexts. Furthermore all, except perhaps the L67 specimen, were removed from the topsoil layer which has been subjected to natural disturbances (root activity etc), or lying on the surface, and hence identifying different period context layers is futile. The Fort F. Hendrik find, L67 found among the walls of the French ruins however seems to originate from the French period and a short distance away was the camp des noirs appartenant au Roy, the area where the slaves belonging to the king resided.

The military nature of two of the sites, the Powder Mills and L’Harmonie Battery, is obvious and hence the artifacts found there may have had a military-related function. Both the ‘A’ and ‘ART’. in the Powder Mills finds could be abbreviations for artillerie, as this site was under the control of the direction de l’artillerieduring the French period. ‘GEN.’ in the L’Harmonie Battery type B specimen could stand for génie which was an engineer department involved in fortification works during the last years of French rule. The very presence of the letter ‘A’ and abbreviation ‘ART.’ in the Powder Mills finds presupposes that different letters and abbreviations could also have been used for designating other departments or services at other localities. Specimens GEN. 171 and L67 may be the perfect illustration of this hypothesis since these 2 items were found elsewhere than the Powder Mills. The numbers on the artifacts are probably numbers from lists, whether of personnel or licenses, and it can be safely asserted that they are not regimental numbers. Nor could they be from military identification badges (sometimes referred as dog tags) since the issue and use of these date from the end of the 19^th century, though some cases have been recorded in the American civil war– the Powder Mills was no longer a military establishment by that time and therefore it is highly improbable that the numbers on the artifacts are the numeros de matricule of military personnel. So despite the fact that the Powder Mills was occupied and garrisoned by various units after 1810, including a detachment of the Madras Pioneers in 1811, there is nothing to indicate that the artifacts found are related to them in any way.

On the other hand the artillerie at the Powder Mills possessed and utilized oxen for pulling carts and in the French plan of the Powder Mills a parc à bœuf is shown not far from the slave camp. It is possible these animals had tags attached to their harnesses or that the carts had an early form of license plate fixed as a means of identification and control. No archival references have been found concerning such usage and practice for the artillerie and génie during the French period though it is well known that animals were usually branded with letters as a means of identifying their owners as they are difficult to conceal in case of theft or loss. Regulations concerning license plates for fishermen do exist for the French period when an ordinance mentions plaque en fer-blanc with their allocated number painted on and to be affixed to their pirogues. Perhaps then carts too had license plates for control purposes though it is doubtful if any of the artifacts found served that purpose. For one thing licensing would concern private business or services instead of state-run activities, which the Powder Mills was for most of its existence. Fig. 9 is a schematic presentation of the artifacts.

Who wore badges?

Different categories of personnel during the French period were required by regulations to wear identification badges. They included, for example, police and forestry guards who wore silver-plated copper oval badges with the words “Gardes de Police” and “Eaux et Forets. Peche et Chasse” engraved respectively. Later during the British period the men of the maroon detachments, who were responsible for the capture of runaway slaves, wore regulation badges “bearing their number and name of their Chief” which they had to show on request (ordinance no 3 of 1835). The descriptions of these badges are not consistent with any of the artifacts discovered.

An engraving from the mid-19^th century (fig. 10 above) depicts newly arrived Indian immigrants sporting badges with numbers. This may be an indication of the ‘ship number’ allocated to migrants as per the corresponding ship registers. They might also have been a temporary measure for new immigrants until their transfer to the sugar estates, out of town. It was perhaps also a means to distinguish between newly landed immigrants and those absconding from work – an offshoot of vagrancy laws in some way. Indeed a pass law was enforced in the 19^th century whereby any Indian worker wandering far from their place of work and without a pass or ticket would be arrested as a vagrant.Another ordinance concerning Indian workers of the 19^thcentury ordered “Every Immigrant licensed to work by the day, or to perform job-work, shall be bound to wear conspicuously on his right arm a badge bearing upon it the word “Job-man” and the number of his license” (Ordinance no 285 0f 1869). The three sites concerned here have little affinity with Indian immigrants, though at a certain period the Powder Mills did serve as an orphan asylum for immigrant children. The site would also serve as an official refuge for Africans liberated from slave ships captured by the Royal Navy. Are the artifacts found identification badges worn by these persons during their temporary stay at the Powder Mills? What would the letters ‘A’ and ‘ART.’ stand for in relation to them? The fleur-de-lis motif on two of the Powder Mills finds certainly does not point to that period but rather to the earlier French Royal period.

One cannot mention the Powder Mills without considering the Kandyan political prisoners from Ceylon (nowSri Lanka) who were exiled in Mauritius from 1819 to 1834 and their incarceration at the site which then served as a temporary state prison. They numbered less than thirty and the relatively high numbers appearing on the artifacts from the site discount the possibility that they are linked to the Kandyans. There are no indications that Indian convicts brought to the island in the 19^th century were confined there or wore tags of any sort though there is a mention that some convicts from Bengal were tattooed on their forehead with their name, crime, date of conviction and sentence with blue indigo ink in their native language.

The distribution of the finds in relation to the slave camp (fig. 11) inevitably leads to an investigation of the possible association of the artifacts with the slaves employed at the mills. It is possible that some of the Powder Mills artifacts were a sort of marker panel for the huts of the slave camp. However the French plan of the factory shows about 60 huts (in contrast with the neater depiction of eight such structures in the Templepainting) and this does not explain the high numbers appearing on some of the artifacts. Individual slaves employed at this establishment were issued with boxes serving as lockers to store their uniforms and furthermore to forestall these same slaves from illicitly selling their standard-issued clothes the letter ‘A’ was required to be sewn conspicuously in white thread on their blue shirts. We note here interestingly enough the use of the letter ‘A’ as a mark of identification for the artillerie. Could some of these artifacts be associated to these individually owned boxes – perhaps in the form of labels or key tags?

There must have been a strict regime of security involved in the manufacture of gunpowder; this is illustrated by the presence of the high enclosure wall, the guard tower and the gate at the Pamplemousses site represented in both the Temple painting and the French plan. Irresponsible handling of equipment and powder or sabotage could spell disaster and the movement of people in and out of the factory would have been restricted to authorized personnel. The camp des noirs was situated outside the walls and hence the slaves (or any category of personnel) entering the precincts may have been subjected to identification control at the entrance gate. Could the artifacts found at the site therefore be some form of identification badges for some of the personnel working at the mills?

At the time of the British invasion 241 government slaves of both sexes lived and worked at this factory and the Mauritius archives has preserved a complete list of them for that period. In fact various lists of government slaves for different periods have survived and indicate that these slaves were allocated numbers by the Bureau de la Matricule, a controlling body serving as registration office for government slaves and other state employed persons during the later part of the French period. Privately owned slaves were not under the jurisdiction of the Bureau although a different form of registration was initiated during the British period for this category of slaves. The bureau continued to function as the Matricule Office after 1810 for the registration and control of Government blacks, with restructured lists. In these new registers slaves formerly employed at the Powder Mills were now redistributed to other departments, a further proof that the factory ceased its activity shortly after the surrender. If the artifacts found at the site are somehow related to the slave camp or its inmates they therefore have a finis date of 1810 or shortly afterwards.

Before pursuing this avenue of research further it is first necessary to make sense out of the imbroglio of various lists and sub-lists from the archives for the French period. Table 1 below is an artificial classification for the purpose of this study taking into account the fact that there are documents missing resulting in large gaps. The post-1810 lists mark a complete break from the preceding ones, as mentioned above and have to be studied separately.

Table 1: Classification of government slaves lists in Mauritius Archives.

List no	Yrs covered	Description and contents	Reference in Archives
L1	1767	List of company slaves remitted to the king. Listed by department and names only	OA 109  Part of inventory
L2	1781-1784	List of slaves embarked on ship’s of Suffren’s squadron to wage war in India. King’s slaves listed by name and matricule numbers.	OC 72A/B
L3	1807 to 1810	This is a master register covering all departments for the period 1807 to 1810. Comprises of 2 sub-lists; male and female	GB 76
L4	1810	A list of the Direction des fortifications. This is a department list independent of L3 with numbers for each slave	GB 108  Part of inventory.
L5	1809	A register of the African Battalion created in 1809 and composed mostly of plantation slaves hired to the government. Listed by numbers and names. Independent of L3. Three copies are extant.	GB 77
Various	French period	Scattered documents mentioning government slaves with respective numbers.

It is evident that the process of allocating numbers by the bureau de la matricule of non-privately owned slaves, known successively in Mauritian history as esclaves de la compagnie, esclaves du roi and noirs de l’etat , only occurred after 1767, the year the island was ceded by the French East India Company to the king.L2, which in fact is a collection of several ships’ officers receipt vouchers accepting both privately owned and king’s slaves sent aboard ships of Suffren’s squadron, provides only fragmentary glimpses of the whole spectrum of king’s slaves during the royal period. The highest number on one of the documents is 3677 though the total number on the bureau’s list could have been higher. This high number can be attributed to the military exigencies caused by war when large numbers of privately owned slaves were recruited for Suffren’s expedition. The number of government slaves reverted back to its normal level once peace was restored. Unfortunately for this study no master register or complete list for the royal period has surfaced, at least not in the local archives.

L3, which could be considered as a master register, covers the period 1807 to 1810 and consists of two separate sub-lists for male and female slaves. This surviving document appears to be an updated and recopied register of a master list established a few years before. The structure, pattern and trend of L3indicate an originating date of around 1804. There is no continuum or correlation between L3 and the previous L2. It is necessary to study the structure of L3 to obtain an insight into the modus operandi of thebureau de la matricule. At the time of this register’s conception each sub-list would consist of consecutive numbers starting from 1 to the highest number, which in effect proves to be the total population of government slaves of that gender at that moment. Each sub-list is separated into departments like chapters of a book, with the whole sequence of numbers initially retaining a continuous consecutive progression throughout, much like the pagination of a book. Whenever any event affected any slave listed, like death or transfer from one department to another, the register would be updated with an annotated entry next to that slave’s name. The allocated number to every slave was never altered nor replaced but eventually shuffled among the various departments resulting in the disorderly appearance of L3. Any new arrivals, or births, would be added at the end of the respective departments, so the highest number appearing is stepping up at every such event. The transferred slaves’ names and numbers would be added at the end of the recipient department disrupting the progressive sequence of numbers within that department. Throughout the register’s effective lifespan a particular slave would therefore retain his number until his or her death. The highest number listed for males is 2643 and the total number of male government slaves in 1810 at the time of the surrender (the closing date of this register) would be significantly lower, the difference being a priorithe number of deaths that occurred between the register’s start date and 1810. The mortality rate of slaves belonging to the government was extracted from the register for the period 1807 to 1810 and this parameter was extrapolated back in time to estimate the conception date of L3 which turns out to be 1804.

This date approximates to the start of General Decaen’s administration. Thus a change in regime or administration seems to bring a review of the registration of government slaves, a sort of audit exercise and every slave would be allocated a new number in the next register. The absence of one register covering the whole period of slavery renders any attempt to relate the numbers on the artifacts with those allocated to slaves on the matricule lists a frustrating effort. This is compounded by the fact that department lists independent of the bureau’s master register did exist, thus a particular government slave could have two different numbers as an examination of L3 and L4 shows. The specimen L 67 could represent such a scenario: L standing for a department, 67 being the department number and the number 680 on the reverse being from the bureau’s list with the fleur-de-lis apparently denoting the French royal period. Unfortunately as we have seen no lists from the royal period have survived in the local archives except for the fragmentaryL2. The archives in France may contain such documents as copies would usually be made of registers and the ministère would be sent information concerning state or king’s property.

Two intriguing terms which are linked to the status of a few of the slaves, appear repeatedly in L3 and other documents; “commandeur à grande médaille d’argent” and “commandeur à petite médaille d’argent”, requires comment. A commandeur is a slave entrusted with a supervisory role and the terms utilized seem to indicate silver or silver-plated badges worn by these select slaves rather than some form of honorary title.This raises the question why this distinguishing apparel is mentioned at all: Is it a way to differentiate between the supervisor’s silver badges with the more mundane ones worn by the ordinary slaves – copper badges for example? Elsewhere the simpler “commandeur à grande médaille” is mentioned, presumably referring to the same silver badges as mentioned earlier.

Instances of slaves in other parts of the world wearing identification badges or tags are extremely rare. In neighboring Réunion the equivalent supervisors were referred as “commandeur à étoile” later in the 19^thcentury, perhaps indicating a distinguishing star-shaped object worn on their clothing. The most documented and publicized case is that of the slave-hire badges of Charleston, South Carolina. They are mentioned briefly here because the badges from there, bear some physical resemblances with the artifacts unearthed here (Fig. 12).

These badges were discovered with the help of metal detectors. Slave hiring in Charleston was authorized by law from the late 18^th century up to the end of the civil war, and the owner of the slave hired paid a yearly tax to the city authorities who issued a badge with the license number, the category of work permitted and the year of validity. In addition to being a source of revenue for the city authorities it proved to be useful in controlling the practice of illicit slave hiring and also indirectly to monitor runaway slaves – any slave without a badge and outside their master’s territory could be arrested. The municipal records of Charlestonhaving disappeared or been destroyed in the mayhem following its capture by Union troops none of the identity of those wearing the badges discovered has been traced yet. Hampered by the absence of direct archival records the authors of the study published on the Charleston badges explored indirect sources like municipal expense sheets and newspaper adverts of the period and managed to build an extensive statistical tableau of the slave hire system. 

In the Bahamas an act passed in 1809 stressed that the owners of slaves could not “permit such slave or slaves to hire themselves out to work, either on board vessels or on shore, as porters or labourers, without first registering the name of such slaves in the police office, and obtaining therefrom a copper badge, with the number of such slave marked thereon: which badge is to be worn on the jacket or frock of the slave, in a conspicuous manner”. In Antigua a similar law applied to hired slaves working as porters. Likewise in the Virgin Islands an act passed in 1783 stated that “owners of negroes employed as common porters are required to enter their names in a public office, and to take out for them a badge or ticket”. In the above examples the wearing of badges concerns slave hiring in an urban environment.

Mauritius proposed a similar law regulating slave hiring. In 1835 an ordinance was enacted that stated “All those… [who] intend to employ themselves or to employ their apprentices under the Slavery Abolition Act, as laborers by the day, porters, messengers, chainmens or other similar occupations in the town of Port-Louis, shall wear a badge or other distinctive mark which shall be furnished to them by the police…” (Ordinance no.16 1835). The term apprentice denoted a slave in the transition period between servitude and freedom. This law was never put into practice because a number of its provisions were rejected as overly repressive by the Colonial Office in Britain, at this time staffed with well known reformers like James Stephen, connected to the Anti Slavery movement.

Badge issue to slaves therefore only occurred in a particular context, where control by the governing authority, be it centralized government or a city administration (as in Charleston), was necessary. The mass of the servile population in these slave societies, working on rural estates and owned by individuals, were exempt from these measures. In Mauritius state-owned slaves never exceeded 5 percent of the total servile population but this in fact probably constitutes a high proportion when compared to other slave colonies. Initial exploration of the local archives has only revealed a few vague allusions to “plaques” in inventory audits and expenditure registers for the French period, which can hardly be considered as evidence of slave badges ever being issued. But there are still a fair amount of documents that need to be dissected for possible clues.

Slaves in all periods of Mauritian history endured strict restrictions on movement and were for most time confined within the limits of their plantation or work environment. Indeed the Code Noir, the set of laws regulating slaves in the French colonies contains allusions to this restriction of movement. The fear of slaves marooning was a prime factor in reining in plantation slaves within the boundary of their owner’s property. This measure also severed possible communication of a subversive nature between different groups and hence lessened the risk of rebellion. Article 12 of the code stated “Deffendons pareillement aux esclaves appartenant a differends maitres de s’attrouper , le jour ou la nuit, sous pretexte de noces, ou autrement, soit chez l’un de leurs maitres, ou ailleurs; et encore moins dans les grands chemins… ” There were exceptions as when plantation slaves were required to sell wares or products of the owner in town or when hunting. The law provided for such exigencies “Deffendons aux esclaves, d’exposer en vente, au marche, …sans permissions expresse de leur maitre , par billet ou par des marques connues…” (Article 14). A billet is of course a written note but marques connues is open to interpretation on our part. Was there some other form of identification method, apart from written notes, in use whenever a slave was authorized to move about? Government slaves would probably have been subjected to supplementary disciplinary regulations in line with their respective task responsibility but would they have been spared the restrictions of the Code Noir as such?

Before concluding this article it is worth studying the case of specimen GEN.171 (found by Van alone at L’Harmonie Battery) in relation with the African Battalion list L5 and the startling coincidence noted. An ordinance dated August 1809 required slave owners from all nine quartiers, or districts, to remit to the government a number of their male slaves of a certain age for the formation of this military unit. Besides the plantation slaves recruited a small number were government slaves, from the artillerie mostly. The battalion had a short-lived existence since it was disbanded soon afterwards principally on account of the planter’s objection to slaves bearing arms. The slaves of the ex-battalion were distributed to the direction del’artillerie and the direction des fortifications following instructions from another ordinance. Despite this official disbanding the slaves were still described in several documents as being part of the African Battalion even after 1810.

L5 is a straightforward list with consecutive numbers 1 to 753 and the names of the slaves, their owners, and the quartier from which the owners originated. Table 2 is a comparative examination of the six type Bitems with the corresponding numbers and data from the list. The aim of this exercise is to see if any correlation exists between the slave’s point of origin and the sites of Pamplemousses and Riviere Noire where this category of badge-like artifacts were found.

Table 2: Comparison of Type B finds with the African Battalion list.

Type B finds		Data from African Bataillon list L5
Artifact	Location of  find (District)	N0.  In list	Slave	Slave  owner	Slave owner’s  quartier
ART.18	Pamplemous  -ses	18	Joseph	Govt.	Port Napoleon  (Port Louis)
ART.67	Pamplemous  -ses	67	Dimanche	Hebert	Pamplemous  ses
ART.69	Pamplemous  -ses	69	Alexandre	Le Blanc	Pamplemous  ses
ART.121	Pamplemous  -ses	121	Calice	Sautunaut	Riviere du Rempart
ART.138	Pamplemous  -ses	138	Hercule	Dufrance	Moka
GEN.171	Riviere Noire	171	Lafrance	Geneve	Riviere Noire

It should be pointed out that the districts of Riviere du Rempart and Moka did not possess gun batteries as such and therefore slaves from the ex-battalion originating from these two localities would need to be redistributed to other areas after the disbanding ordinance. Port Napoleon was the foremost fortified district with Pamplemousses adjoining it in the north. The Powder Mills at Pamplemousses was under the control of the artillerie as we have seen and could have been the recipient of some of the redistributed slaves of the African battalion. We would also expect the ex-battalion slaves to be stationed close to their owner’s property but other considerations may have dictated the distribution. At this stage no archival records have surfaced that indicate how the geographical distribution occurred.

The one eye-catching detail is the case of GEN.171 discovered at Black River or Riviere Noire. Number 171 on the list was allocated to slave Lafrance whose owner was Geneve residing in the district of Riviere Noire. Geneve’s property was located less than three kilometers from the spot where GEN 171 was found, the l’Harmonie battery. We have earlier considered the possibility of ‘GEN.’ being an abbreviation for Genie but now another factor emerges, that of the abbreviation of Geneve, the slave owner. Two set of coincidences are now apparent for the Riviere Noire find: one of geographical distribution and the other of names. It is also worth mentioning that the genie was responsible for gun battery maintenance works and that this service included the administration of the direction des fortifications where a proportion of the African Battalion slaves were transferred following the disbanding ordinance.

Worth noting is the reduction in the battalion’s strength at the time of the surrender when 453 out of the original 753 appear as the unit’s total population in the inventory, probably a result of some owners recalling their slaves prior to that date. In one copy of the battalion register an annotation indicates that slave Lafrance was returned (rentré) to a Mr Barry, most probably A.G. Barry the chief secretary to the Governor, but no date is given. Lafrance would in principle still be a member of the redistributed ex-battalion at the time of this transfer to A.G. Barry and not one of the returned slaves. This certainly is a case of slave hiring and a few government officials and military officers enjoyed this privilege during the early years of British rule. Lafrance does not appear in L4, the inventory of the direction des fortification (in effect the genie) made in December 1810, whilst other ex-battalion slaves do. If we start with the premise that type B artifacts were worn exclusively by the slaves of the ex-African Battalion then we infer Lafrance was not part of the genie but must have been with the artillerie at the time of the surrender since A.G. Barry was appointed only after that event, in which case the abbreviation ‘GEN.’ stands for Geneve, the slave owner and not for genie as suggested earlier. The only other possibility is that Lafrance was indeed formerly a member of the genie and was recalled for duty just after the surrender. Only the finding of another Type B artifact in another location than the Powder Mills could resolve this matter – whether they were worn by the slaves of the African Battalion or that the correlations noted in the case of GEN.171 are no more than coincidences.

Conclusion

Despite exploring several possibilities these fifteen artifacts still baffle. They are at this stage unidentified as the title suggests. Their shape, size and configuration points to some sort of badges or tags. The distribution and concentration of the artifacts within a specified area at the Powder Mills seems to indicate site-related rather than casual random losses. They could date from the French period (1722 to 1810) though no conclusive evidence can be presented to support this claim. Some of these may have been present in some way or other on the 30^th of November 1810 when the British column halted there. No Rosetta stone from the archives, so to speak, has surfaced for the interpretation of the numbers as far as the government slave connection trail is concerned. Hopefully this article will prompt people in possession of similar objects to come forward and eventually a better understanding of the purpose and identity of these artifacts may be achieved. After all they are like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle– the more we have the better the overall picture.

Van Lanza- a tribute.

Van was born in 1941 in the U.S.A. He moved to the Seychelles where he worked for several years and married there. After retiring he settled in Mauritius and having plenty of spare time joined as a volunteer with the archaeological team of Dr Pieter Floore working at Grand Port. Possessed with uncommon energy and a prankster-bent humor he left a lasting souvenir of his passage to the team. He passed away in December 2007 in the States after courageously battling a brief but relentless enemy.

Had he been here today he would have contributed to this article– after all he found about half of the artifacts discussed including the all important GEN.171 specimen. The artifacts (except that of FortF.Hendrik which is already part of the museum’s archaelogical holdings) described in the present paper have been offered to the Mauritius Museums Council as a contribution to the nation’s heritage, while we await a definitive attribution of their function.

Colour Illustrations referred to in the preceding text

Fig.2 ‘A west view of the Moulin a Poudre where the British Army halted 30th Nov. 1810.’Temple, R. Eight views of the Mauritius, 1811.

The photograph of the Fort F.Hendrik artifact is reproduced with the kind permission of Dr. Pieter Floore and Ranjith Jayasena.

Anderson, C. Convicts in the Indian Ocean. Transportation from South Asia to Mauritius, p. 35.

Règlement concernant la police et les travaux des esclaves des cinq subdivisions affectés aux différent parties du service de l’artillerie des Indes Orientales du premier Juillet 1808. Article 4. Copy in Archives Départementales de la Réunion. Sincere thanks to Philippe Denis for his research there.

MA GA 77. Extract of a recommendation letter from an officer for granting freedom to a commandeur slave employed in a government department: “Supplie très humblement Louis Guilaine, commandeur de l’état, affecté à l’atelier de ferblantier et honoré de la médaille d’argent…” The term ‘honoré’ is probably used here to denote a privileged position (commandeur) rather than an honorific title.

Greene, H. Hutchins, H.S. & Hutchins B.E., Slave Badges and the Slave-Hire system in Charleston, South Carolina, 1783-1865, 2004. The photograph of the Charleston badges is reproduced with kind permission of Harlan Greene and Professor Harry S. Hutchins.

Higman, W. Slave Populations of the British Caribbean, 1807-1834, 2002.

Turner, M. From Chattel Slaves to Wage Slaves, 1995.

James Stephen. The slavery of the British West Indies colonies delineated. (Virgin Island act 1783 sec.29, p. 302.)

A register of expenses dated 1st July 1809 mentions for the matricule department “Deux médailles en fer blanc” MA GA 35. Another inventory for the marine in 1810 contains the cryptic entry “Six barriques contenant des plaques en cuivre”. MA. GB 108.

Extract of a report by Sir John Abercromby dated 9th January 1811:“At the Battery de la Harmonie…the huts are in bad condition, but there is a good store barrack nearly finished. It was built by Monsieur Geneve, the commandant of the quarter…” Quoted in Letters of Sir John Abercromby edited by Raymond D’Unienville.

© R Ramasawmy

This article was published in Carter et al, Kaleidoscopic Conquest, CRIOS, Mauritius 2010.

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