Pierre Guillon de Prince believed to be first in France to formally apologise for ancestors’ allegiances to slavery
An 86-year-old man has issued what is believed to be the first formal apology by someone in France for their family’s role in transatlantic slavery.
Pierre Guillon de Prince’s ancestors, based in Nantes, which was the country’s largest port for transatlantic slavery, were shipowners who transported about 4,500 enslaved Africans and owned plantations in the Caribbean.
Guillon de Prince said on Saturday that other French families must confront their historical allegiances to slavery and the state should go beyond symbolic gestures to address the past including through reparations.
He said: “Faced with the rise of racism in our society, I felt a responsibility not to let this past be erased.”
