Dr. Mélanie Lamotte Charts a New Course of Inquiry for French Slavery

Assistant Professor of History, Dr. Mélanie Lamotte, first became interested in researching the Black experience as a teenager exploring her own genealogy. Tracing the maternal side of her family back seven generations, she identified an enslaved ancestor, Annerose, forced to work on a sugarcane plantation on the Caribbean Island of Guadeloupe during the late 18th century. 

Dr. Lamotte focused her research on race and colonialism and looks at French slavery through both legislation and the daily life and experiences of enslaved people. Learn more about her journey here.