Eur-African Women in 18th and 19th Century Senegal

FAIN: FT-13679-78

Leland Conley Barrows, PhD
Voorhees College (Denmark, SC 29042)

To write a paper which will be read at the International Congress of Africanists at Bucharest in 1980, on the subject of Eur-African women in four historic communes in Senegal. In the 17th century, after the founding of permanent French settlements, due to the lack of white women, French traders and officials took local mistresses, called signares, and kept them for the duration of their stays in Senegal. By 1855, Eur-African society had been profoundly modified by the introduction of the French Civil Code into St. Louis and Goree in 1830, and the emancipation of the slaves in 1858. The first measure encouraged legal marriage between Europeans and Eur-Africans and the second step ended the financial independence of the Eur-African community.