fco_831648 - MARIE-GALANTE Épreuve ou monnaie de nécessité avec contremarque MG 1809

MARIE-GALANTE

Marie-Galante is an island in the Lesser Antilles located 30 km from Guadeloupe. Initially populated by the Caribbean, the island was discovered on November 3, 1493 during the second voyage of Christopher Columbus. The first French settlers settled in 1648. Slaves were brought in to cultivate the plantations. Disputed by the British, they occupied Marie-Galante in 1808. If the Treaty of Paris returned the island to France in 1814, it was again occupied between July 6 and July 22, 1816 by the English following a seizure of power by the Bonapartists. Slavery was definitively abolished in 1848. It is administratively attached to the district of Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe.